Rendezvous at Monteriggioni
by Atlantima
Summary: He thought he'd never see her again after Abstergo got him. She thought assassins were people who killed presidents, Abstergo was just a global tech company, and Templars were a crazy conspiracy theory. - Takes place during Brotherhood (spoilers for AC, AC2, Brotherhood). Desmond/Original character. Rated M for sexuality (chapter 2 only), swear words, and references to killing.
1. Chapter 1: Imprevisto

Chapter 1: Imprevisto

Desmond loved the night time.

He knew they worried about him being caught when he went outside, and hell, even he himself worried about it a bit. But after being held hostage at Abstergo, and having to stay inside at the previous Assassin safehouse, it was so great to actually be outdoors. So much better than that stuffy underground chamber. To feel the breeze was so invigorating. Freerunning in the Animus wasn't really "free"; he was always supposed to stick to the mission. And Ezio was always weighed down with armor and weapons.

The others were always going out in the daytime to do various errands, which surely ran a much higher risk of discovery. And at least Desmond knew better than to get in fights with the locals, unlike Shaun. God, that guy was annoying. _Fucking know-it-all. He thinks he's witty, but he's just a jerk_. That was another reason he loved getting out. It was a respite from Shaun's near-constant bad attitude.

He grabbed a windowsill and propelled himself onto the roof. Upwards, across, over, down, then upwards again. The movements were almost automatic now.

Suddenly a stabbing pain intruded on his thoughts. He had grabbed the sharp rusty edge of an old metal gutter. "Aahh! Merda!" With a soft thump, Desmond dropped back down to the balcony below and tried to examine his injury in the darkness. A chuckle escaped him as he realized he had sworn in Italian.

"Desmond?! Is that you?" A voice interjected into the stillness. He raised his gaze from his hand and was suddenly blinded as a light turned on behind the window. He froze. _That voice... it couldn't be...her?_

His Assassin training was telling him to scram. _You can't be seen! You can't trust anyone! That could be an Abstergo agent! _He spun around and vaulted from the balcony to the ground, his injured palm complaining.

"Jesus Christ, Desmond, what are you doing?!" She was shouting now. _If I keep running, she'll keep yelling_, he realized. _And then more people will show up, and I'll really be in trouble._ He turned back to face the window, but she wasn't there anymore. Footsteps. She was coming downstairs. He looked up and down the alley, hoping that nobody else had been roused by the ruckus. _Did I wake her up? How much noise was I making? I gotta try harder to keep quiet..._

The front door of the cottage swung open as Desmond stood, his body motionless but his mind racing.

_Ragazza mia. I thought I'd never see her again. Why was I running from her? What is she doing in Italy?_

The only person from his life in New York whom he'd actually missed. Alexis Chandler. She had been inhabiting Desmond's dreams lately - when he wasn't having nightmares.

His friend was silhouetted in the doorway against the light from the interior. She opened her mouth and was about to shout after him again. Signaling for quiet, Desmond approached her. Her expression was one of hopeful, perplexed disbelief.

"Lexie... You... What are you doing here?"

She smirked at the question. "What am **I **doing here? In this vacation house? I'm on a vacation. I couldn't sleep 'cause of jet lag, so I was chilling out and stargazing, when suddenly my missing person boyfriend shows up outside my window! What are **you **doing **here**?"

"Uhh...it's kind of a long story, actually."

"I bet. You wanna come inside and tell me? It's kind of chilly out here."

She ushered him in, to a cozy living room. "God, Des, what the fuck happened to you? I've been worried crazy!"

"You've always been a little bit crazy," Desmond teased, as he parked himself on the sofa. He lowered his hood, at the same time discreetly taking off his earpiece and pocketing it.

"Seriously! I got my friends to put up all these missing person flyers and stuff! I thought for sure you were kidnapped, or maybe..." Here her voice lowered exponentially. She didn't seem to want to vocalize the thought: "...maybe even... dead."

"Well, I am very much alive, but I **was **kidnapped."

"Seriously? By who, your weird cult family?"

_Ouch, harsh._ Desmond winced upon hearing the Assassins referred to as such. _But, that is how I used to view it, and how I described it to her back then._ It seemed a lifetime ago. "No... It was actually... Abstergo."

"Come again?"

"Abstergo Industries." Alexis just sat there, looking at him. _I guess it does sound pretty silly, to someone on the outside._ _Like being kidnapped by GE, or Samsung._ After a few moments, she exhaled, and then replied, "You were kidnapped by Abstergo. Okay. Well, right now you seem like a pretty free man to me."

"Well, that's because I excaped."_ Probably best not to give too many details._

"Okaaay. Why are you in Italy?"

"Abstergo's a big company. They have locations all over." He shrugged.

The woman spotted his wounded palm. "Hey, what happened to your hand?"

Desmond looked down at the cut. It wasn't deep, but it was bleeding a bit. "Oh, man. I was so astonished to find you here, I completely forgot about that."

"Let's get that cleaned up." She left the room briefly and returned with a damp cloth and a roll of she tended to his hand, she inquired, "Do you want to stay the night? I'll hide you from any bad old Abstergo employees that come lookin' for ya."

"Ah..." He glanced up at the clock. It was just past eleven. _Gotta be back by sunrise... _"Okay, but I have to be somewhere tomorrow morning. Five o'clock or so."

"Places to go, people to see?"

_More like, memories to sync and Templars to kill... _"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Come on, you know me: I'll believe anything, if there's good evidence for it." She finished bandaging his hand.

He scrutinised her, ruminating. _I've told her this much... is it safe to reveal anything more? Hm, I wonder if..._ "Give me a moment." Desmond closed his eyes and focused. When he reopened them, his view of the room was hazy and dark. His own body emitted a blue glow, but Alexis was colorless and dim. _Not an enemy. Well, I was pretty sure of that already._ He scanned the walls, the furniture, the windows, not sure what exactly he was checking for. Would Eagle Vision detect something like an Abstergo surveillance device, if there was one planted in here?

"You okay? What'cha looking for?"

"I'm fine." He blinked a couple times, flipping the mental switch to go back to normal vision. "There's no-one else here?"

"Nope. Why?"

He looked earnestly into her eyes. "I'm telling you this because I really trust you. It's top secret, I mean it. You can't even tell anyone I was here, okay?"

"You working for the Italian CIA or something? Come on, you're killing me with this suspense!"

_Here goes._ He took a deep breath. "I'm an Assassin."

Her lighthearted mood suddenly darkened. "Jesus Christ, Desmond... who did you kill?"

Startled, Desmond yelped, "Wait, no, it's not like that!" _Well, technically it is_, he thought to himself, remembering Shaun's words: _"We're Assassins... it means we kill people."_ He explained, choosing his words carefully. "The Assassin Brotherhood. It's an organization based on protecting freedom, and fighting tyranny."

The perplexed look had returned. "Well... that... sounds really noble..."

"And the reason Abstergo kidnapped me, it's because... they've been doing research on genetic memory. They put me in this machine, so they could see into the lives of my ancestors." She looked skeptical, but didn't say anything. "They're looking for something called the Apple of Eden, which can control people's minds. That's their ultimate goal. To create an orderly world where nobody dissents from their authority. We can't let them do that."

"Uh-huh... but that doesn't explain why you're climbing all over the place in the middle of the frickin' night."

"I guess you could say... I'm practicing? Assassins have to be good at excaping from Templars."

"From who?"

"Templar Knights... or Knights Templar, I'm not sure. You know, from the Crusades? Yeah, those dudes are still around. That's what Abstergo really is."

"Wait a minute, this sounds familiar... sounds a lot like that cult you were raised in."

"It's not a cult, okay! Look, I know you're wanting proof, but sorry I can't exactly show you a peer-reviewed scientific study on whether Templars control the world! Staying secret is kind of their thing." He sighed and hung his head. "I know, it sounds preposterous. Genetic memories, mind control, secret societies... but it's all true."

"Desmond, babe..." She wrapped her arms around him. "Just an hour ago I didn't know if you were still alive." His friend's voice trembled. "Let's not argue. Never mind the Templars and all that. I'm just glad you're okay..."

He hugged her back. "I really missed you, you know?" The couple sat motionless for a few moments. He savored the embrace.

"Hmmm... Desmond... What is that?"

"What?"

"Your... left arm. Something metal?"

_She felt the hidden blade. Fuck. She's gonna freak._ Lightning fast, Desmond retracted his arms. "Lexie, I..." She was looking at his arm. "You gotta understand. You know me," She was taking his left hand.. "I would never hurt you, you know that, right?" She was pushing back the sleeve of his jacket. "It's..." Words were failing him.

Gingerly, she traced her fingers over the surface of the contraption. "This is... some sort of weapon?"

"Yeah... It's a Hidden Blade. ...You're not frightened?"

"Of you? No, never. But I gotta admit, I'm pretty shaken up. You go missing for weeks, and then I find you running around on another continent in the middle of the night, and you're armed with something like this... It's concerning, to say the least. I'll reserve judgement on this whole mind-control Abstergo Knights conspiracy theory, but you're clearly in some sort of serious shit-uation."

He had to laugh at the unexpected wordplay. "Yeah, that's a nice concise way of putting it."

"Nice and concise," she chirped, sing-song. Then she yawned. "Before I go to bed, I wanna be sure of a couple things. You're not in any legal trouble? No police are gonna show up and interrogate me about you?"

"No, the only organization that's after me is Abstergo, and they prefer to do things extralegally."

"Are you living on the streets, or do you have a place you're staying?"

"There's an Assassin safehouse nearby." _It might not be "safe" for long, though._

"Assassin safehouse. Sure... Okay, I'm gonna hit the hay. You look like you could use some rest too." Alexis stood and motioned him to follow.

He wasn't physically tired, but emotionally drained. "All right, but, uh, don't be alarmed if I'm not here when you wake up. Like I said, I got stuff to do."

"Be careful out there, buddy. You'll drop by here again, right? Or would a repeat visit jeopardize your secret mission too much?"

He briefly weighed it in his mind. "I don't see why not. Maybe tomorrow night I can find some way to convince you of my crazy story," he smiled.

The assassin slept on the floor, so that he wouldn't get too comfortable. He didn't want to risk sleeping into the day. He awoke around three in the morning and slipped quietly away.

Back at the sanctuary, Rebecca was keeping watch while Lucy and Shaun slept. "What were you doing out there so long?"

Desmond hid the bandaged hand in his pocket. "Stargazing," he lied.

* * *

Endnotes:

- "knew better than to get in fights with the locals, unlike Shaun." This refers to an Italian newspaper article from Initiates.  
- Yes, Desmond says "excape", not "escape". It's a character quirk.  
- Cover image by Leana/babypopnet on Flickr; licensed under Creative Commons BY-ND 2.0.


	2. Chapter 2: Amanti

Chapter 2: Amanti

Desmond didn't linger long in the Animus today. He exited as soon as he completed his current sequence. When he returned to the present, he could smell that dinner was ready. He ate as quickly as he could without arousing suspicion from his companions. Which turned out not to be very quickly at all: the meal was some mysterious meat that tasted like liver.

As soon as he'd choked down a sufficient portion of the stuff, he excused himself from the group.

"You're going out again tonight?"

"Yeah, gotta burn those calories, you know? Don't want you to have to widen the Animus." _Their stupid insults have given me the perfect cover story._ He wasn't sure why he had decided not to tell them about Alexis. It hadn't been a conscious decision. Maybe he liked having something to keep to himself, something that wasn't recorded and analyzed. Maybe he was worried about how they'd react, worried they would stop him going to see her again. At any rate, it felt like the right choice. For now at least.

This time, he opted to leave his Hidden Blade at the hideout. _She was pretty cool about it yesterday, but she'll probably feel more at ease if I'm not armed._

He made a beeline for the cottage across from the bank, and climbed up to the balcony. Peering inside, he spotted Alexis at a small table, reading a book. He knocked lightly on the window. She glanced up and started at the sight of him. He waved. She came to the window and let him in.

"Desmond! You really came back."

"Of course, why wouldn't I?"

"I figured you probably would," she grinned, "but I also figured there was a chance I just dreamed everything from last night."

"You think I'm dreamy, huh? Same to you, Lex." He leant in and gave her a kiss.

* * *

"Turns out it **was** liver. Pig liver. Something called 'fegatelli di maiale'. They cook it in the pig's stomach, can you believe it?" Desmond was reclined on the couch, head resting in Alexis' lap.

"Blech. There's no accounting for taste."

"La pura verità."

"You've got a really good accent going. Are you taking classes?"

"Nah, it's pure immersion. Eight hours a day in the Animus works wonders. Sometimes I don't even realize I'm speaking Italian."

"...Eight hours in what?"

"Oh, didn't I tell you about the Animus?"

"I don't think so..."

"Ah, my mistake. The Animus is a machine invented by Abstergo. It's used to relive memories from your ancestors."

"How's that?"

Desmond sat up. "Something called 'genetic memory', encoded in human DNA. I don't understand the technological details, but being in the Animus is like going back in time. Only you're not yourself. You're someone else, from way back in your family tree. I'm talking hundreds of years back. You see what they saw, hear what they heard."

"Man, that is some science fiction shit."

"Hey, it's true. That's what happened after Abstergo got me. I was one of their test subjects. They made me go in the Animus and live the life of an Assassin from the Crusades."

"How would that help you learn Italian?"

"Since I excaped Abstergo, I started reliving a different ancestor, also an Assassin, but this time in Italy during the Renaissance. I've been spending so much time as Ezio that his skills are being passed on to me."

"So, it's like a historical virtual reality simulation game."

"I guess it is technically a simulation, but it's no game."

"All right, give me a moment to process this." She was rubbing her temples, as if trying to fight off a headache. "They kidnapped you to test their machine? I thought you said they were trying for world domination."

"They needed information from my memories to get the Apple of Eden... Did I mention the Apple yet? Shiny gold ball, controls people's minds?"

"I'll believe that when I see it."

"You might not like it if you did." Suddenly, images of Assassins under Al Mualim's control at Masyaf filled his vision. _Great, more bleeding._ He shook his head and rubbed his eyes until the phantoms dissipated.

"What's wrong?"

"Ahh, it's nothing." _She has enough reason to think I'm crazy without knowing about the hallucinations._ "Enough about me. What have you been up to?"

"Nothing much. Job's going okay. Been spending most of my time worrying about you. I wasn't even planning this vacation, you know? It was Anne's idea- you remember Anne, right? She said I needed some time to relax. I think she was hoping I'd just forget about you being missing. She said I was obsessed and I should just let the police do their job."

"Well I'm sure glad you came." _If I know the Templars, they probably either bribed the police to discontinue their search, or planted evidence to lead them on a wild goose chase._ "By the way, I meant to ask before: How long are you going to be in Monteriggioni?"

"Just a week; well, five more days now." He looked dejected. "What? This place is pricey. How about yourself? Any plans to get back home?"

"No... I don't think I'll ever be able to return."

"Never?"

"The Assassins need me. And I need them, if I don't want Abstergo to get me. Which I don't. Last time they had me they wanted to kill me. They probably still do."

"Mm... Well, we better make the most of our time together, Desmond my dear." She gave him a playful look.

"You're making a pass at me? Right after I've said that a giant evil corporation wants to kill me? I'd have thought that was a mood killer. You're weird."

"Hey, I'm trying to take your mind off your troubles. Are you saying you're not interested?"

"Oh, I'm not saying that..." He grinned and moved in to embrace her.

Alexis ran her tongue over the enigmatic scar that defined his lips. Keeping their bodies in contact, she led the way to the bedroom. Desmond laid her down and unbuttoned her nightshirt. He caressed her bosom, gently running his fingertips in circles of diminishing size until reaching her nipples. Then he trailed his hands down, over the fantastic curve of her waist, the slight podge of her belly.

For now, nothing existed beyond his body and hers. There were no Abstergo research labs, no Pieces of Eden, no shadowy organizations, no enigmatic codes, no ancient civilizations, no portents of doom. Just two lovers, touching each other, reveling in mutual pleasure.

* * *

"I should have known you had Italian blood. You do have a certain flair for lovemaking."

"You're pretty good yourself, Lex." Desmond said, sleepily. The pair drifted off in each others' arms.

A couple of hours passed silently, and then...

"No! Padre! Federico! Petruccio!"

Alexis was startled awake by the pained cries. "Huh? Desmond?! Hey, calm down!"

"E zio Mario, anche! Bastardi templari!" he howled, eyes closed, a death grip on the sheets..

"What's going on? Wake up! Des!" She shook him by the shoulders.

"Tutti uccisi! Gah!" His eyes shot open, his breathing frantic and shallow. "Sono... Che cosa?"

"It's okay, it's just a bad dream! Calm down..."

"Do... I... aagh. Goddamn Bleeding Effect... " he growled.

"Are you okay? You were, like, yelling. Really loud. In Italian."

He sighed. "Yeah... I guess I'm okay..." _So much for keeping this from her._ "That's a side effect of the Animus. Sometimes I get these visions of the past, even when I'm not in it. As you might have guessed, not all the memories are exactly pleasant... Sorry you had to witness me like that."

"Geez, Desmond. This is for real."

"That's what I've been telling you."

"I know, but... It's not like I thought you were lying. It's just... the stuff you were saying is so out there."

"You don't know the half of it." _Imagine her reaction if I told her about Eagle Vision, or Subject 16's video._ He caught sight of the clock. "Shit, it's gonna be sunrise soon. I gotta get back." He jumped out of bed and scrambled to get his clothes on.

"Are you, like, breaking curfew to come see me? That is precious."

"No, I'm allowed out at night. I just have to be back before daybreak. For security reasons. Where did I put my Hidden- oh right, I didn't wear it tonight..."

"Same time tomorrow night?" Alexis inquired hopefully.

"It's a date."

As Desmond climbed onto the roof and started back, he had a nagging thought. I_t is really a strange coincidence for her to be in Monteriggioni at the same time as you. What if Abstergo is using her to get to you? What would you do then?_ Rebecca's tale of her ex-boyfriend came to mind, unbidden. He tamped down the thought, burying the possibility. _No way. Alex's too honest, too intelligent, too ethical to be working for them._

* * *

Endnotes & Errata:

- The first time I posted this chapter the formatting was completely screwed up. My sincere apologies for overlooking that.

- "the cottage across from the bank": In-game, this building has a sign indicating it's actually a hotel. I considered amending the story to reflect this, but decided against it since it is a very minor detail.

- "Rebecca's tale of her ex-boyfriend": This refers to an optional dialogue with Rebecca available after sequence 3 in _ACB_.


	3. Chapter 3: Proposta

Chapter 3: Proposta

"And then there were these barrels of gunpowder, and I lit them on fire and exploded the machine gun! But the Borgia had **another **machine gun so I had to chase it down and destroy that one too! But there were like hundreds of Templars on horseback trying to get me! But I was all pow, pow, pow!" Desmond mimed firing a cannon. "Using their own weapon against them! How d'ya like dem apples, Cesare?!" he declared triumphantly.

"Sounds like quite an escapade. Your ancestor sure had a crazy life." Alexis remarked. "...By the way, why do you keep saying 'I', when it's not really you?"

"Well, technically, yeah, Ezio originally did it. But I was doing it today." He scratched his head as he tried to explain. "It's not like watching a movie; there's input from me that affects how things happen. I have to follow the memory close enough to stay synced, but within those parameters, I can choose how to do it. Does that make any sense?"

"Uh, I guess so. Next question: What do you mean, 'synced'?"

"It's just what it sounds like: I have to keep my actions in sync with Ezio's life, with his memories. Like, I couldn't make him go to Milan, because he never went to Milan, so I don't have any genetic memories of Milan, so I'd get desynchronized." He laughed, which prompted a quizzical look from Alexis. "Can you believe I thought you might be working for Abstergo? It's pretty obvious you know nothing about Animus stuff."

"You thought I was with Abstergo? Geez, Desmond."

"It was a possibility! You can't be too careful in my line of work."

"Well, I'm glad you decided to trust me. Hey, you want some vino? I got some Moscato d'Asti while I was out today."

"Sure. I haven't had a drink in ages." She poured out two glassfuls and he sampled one. "Man, this is really sweet."

"I told you it's Moscato."

"Hey, I know a lot of Italian, but that doesn't automatically make me a wine expert."

"What kind of bartender are you?" she teased.

"You're thinking of a sommelier, doofus." he laughed.

"Fair enough." She began laughing too, and, for some reason, neither one of them could stop for several minutes.

After the giggling subsided, Alexis breathed deeply. "God, I'm gonna miss you, Des. I missed you before, but, I thought they would find you eventually. Now I know you're out there, doing all this secret stuff, having to hide forever and never come back... In a way, it's more devastating than if you had turned up dead."

He was silent for a long moment, considering his next words carefully.

"...What if you could come with me?" She looked at him, wide-eyed. "Would you? Even if it meant you could never go back?"

"I... I'd have to think about it. I mean, I'm still not sure what exactly you **do**."

"Sure you do, I was just telling you about it! I relive memories in the Animus, looking for information from the past to help the present-day Assassins."

"How many of you guys are there, anyway?"

"In total? I have no idea. I've met three. ...Three in the present, that is. There's other cells around the globe, but we're the only ones in Italy, it seems."

Alexis sipped her wine, contemplating. Desmond forged ahead. "You know I didn't like New York that much. But it was fun with you around. I don't care about the big rotten apple. I care about **you**. I want to take advantage of the crazy coincidence that brought us together again."

"Is that allowed? For outsiders to join your group?"

"It happens all the time in the memories I'm reliving. Granted, the Brotherhood is a lot more clandestine nowadays. I don't know what the current protocol is, but I'm sure there's a way... Are you saying you would go for it?"

"Well, I have been considering a career change. I've always wanted to do something where I could make a positive change in the world. And from what you've told me, you guys are big into liberty and democracy and stuff... What's the pay like for an entry-level Assassin?" she said, half-jokingly.

"Whatever you can liberate from the enemy's coffers... and they tend to be wealthy fatcats with a lot to spare." He grinned.

"So, like a Robin Hood type of deal?" she said, swishing the wine around in her glass.

"Yeah. He was probably an Assassin, come to think of it..."

"I'm still not sure how much I believe of all this. But it's feeling pretty real."

"It is very real. And there's real danger too. Not that long ago, our previous hideout was discovered and we had to fight our way out. If they find our current location, we're screwed. Like I said, we're just four people. The Templars outnumber us and they have way more resources."

"So you want me to help you fight them? I'd love to, but I've got a lot more experience being a cubicle jockey than a freedom fighter. You really think **I** could be an... Assassin?" He could tell by the way she said it that she still had some doubt about the organization's veracity.

"Believe me, we need all the support we can get, even if it's just moral support," Desmond said, even as he wondered: _Is it truly the Assassins that could use her support, or just me?_ He drained the final sugary droplets from his glass, then looked into Alexis' eyes. "You would really do it? You would leave your friends, your family, your whole life behind?"

"Desmond, I..." She paused for a long moment, seeming to search within herself for what she wanted to say, and then began again. "You said these guys, these... Templars, want to control the minds of everyone on Earth?"

"Yes. To suppress anything that threatens their rule."

"Well, 'everyone' includes my friends and family... If I can protect them from that, I think it would be worth it. And besides: You don't know how many times I've said to myself 'I'd do anything to see Desmond again' since you disappeared. I can't amend that after the fact to 'I'd do anything except risk my life fighting evil with him.' It'd be dishonest." She was smiling slightly, but it was obvious she was serious about this. "If this is all real, then I'd gladly join up."

"All right then. I'll find out what I can about getting you into the fold, and give you an update tomorrow night."

"Don't leave yet... Tell me more about them." She hesitated before specifying. "...The other Assassins. ...Geez, it's so weird trying to think of that word as meaning 'the good guys'."

"Well, ah, good guys sometimes have to kill bad guys," Desmond hedged. "I mean, you saw the Hidden Blade. It's not just a fashion accessory."

"Okay, but why couldn't they give themselves a more positive name?"

"I dunno, ask Shaun; he knows everything about everything."

"Shaun? One of your guys?"

"Yeah, it's Shaun, Lucy, Rebecca, and me. And, hopefully, you, soon."

"What are they like?"

Desmond shrugged. "Like I said, Shaun's a know-it-all; our resident historian. Lucy's pretty nice; she's the one who got me out of Abstergo. Rebecca's kind of kooky, but she's all right. She built and programmed the Animus we're using. I still don't know them that well. But we're all on the same side, and that's what matters."

* * *

Endnotes & Errata:

-This chapter's on the shorter side, but chapter four will be extra long.

-This part was originally to be titled "Moscato".


	4. Chapter 4: Diffidenza

Chapter 4: Diffidenza

The next day, after the Animus session concluded, it was time for Desmond to test the waters. Lucy was out getting food, and Rebecca was absorbed in something at the computer, so he approached Shaun.

"Hey, Shaun? These memories are making me wonder... What do you usually do to recruit people these days? I'm guessing it's no longer as easy as asking a troubled peasant 'You wanna come fight for the Assassins?'"

He looked up from his cluttered desk to address Desmond. "You're right, it is difficult. The Templars have a huge advantage in that regard, having Abstergo as a cover. People fall all over each other to work there. Then the higher-ups can pick and choose whom they allow into their inner circle. The Brotherhood has no such public face. I think most Assassins these days were born into it, like you and Lucy were. Then there are some, like yours truly, who inadvertently got into hot water with the enemy, and had to be rescued. I know your father recruited a few people, but I don't know the details." He turned his attention back to the documents he'd been reading.

"Huh..." Desmond pondered this information for a moment, then pressed on. "Do they have to, like, pass some sort of test first?"

"I just told you I don't know the details," came the annoyed reply. "Why are you asking about this, anyway? Maybe you didn't notice, but we have bigger issues right now than human resources."

_Tread lightly... _"Suppose I knew a person," he said slowly. "Someone I really trusted. I mean, it wouldn't hurt to have more people on our side, right?"

Shaun shot him a piercing look. "Bloody hell, Desmond. This isn't hypothetical, is it? Who've you been in contact with? What have you told him?" Across the sanctuary, Rebecca had been focusing on her screen. But upon hearing Shaun's raised voice, she was concerned. Removing her headphones for once, she headed towards the two men to see what the commotion was about.

Desmond shrank away from the sudden volley of questions. _Crap. He saw right through me._ "An old friend, from New York. I haven't told her too much. Just the broad strokes."

"Oh, well, as long as you didn't tell too much, I guess that's all right then!" Shaun's rage reverberated off the chamber's stone walls. "Never mind that any communications outside Hephaestus are insecure, making it trivial for Abstergo to pinpoint their origin! For Chrissake, man, I knew you were daft, but foolishness of this magnitude borders on treachery!"

Rebecca looked shocked.

"Hey, calm down, I'm not an idiot! Of course I wasn't **emailing** her."

"Cell phones aren't any safer, twat!"

Almost yelling now, Desmond spat, "What about just conversing, face-to-face? Oh, but you wouldn't know anything about that, would you, Mr. Antisocial?"

Rebecca stepped between them. "Hey, chill out, the both of you. Screaming insults at each other won't solve anything. Desmond, you've been meeting with someone? When?"

"Of course! His midnight excursions! Why did we decide to allow that nonsense?"

"Guys, she's completely trustworthy! I can tell when someone's on our side or not. Eagle Vision, remember?" He hadn't expected this much of a negative reaction. "Maybe if you met her, you'd understand."

"You are **not **bringing some stranger here to our last safe hideout."

"Well then **you **can go to **her**, okay? And she's no stranger, she was my girlfriend back before all this started! I've gone to see her the last three nights. If she was going to kill me or rat us out to the Templars, wouldn't she have done it by now?"

Rebecca spoke up before Shaun could formulate another angry retort. "I said, **chill out!** Where is she, Desmond? And what exactly does she know?"

"She's in Monteriggioni on vacation. The rental cottage across the way from the bank." He now realized he had, in fact, told her quite a bit more than 'just the broad strokes'. "I told her Abstergo kidnapped me... they're actually Knights Templar... they wanna take over the world... they're looking for the Apple... they invented the Animus..."

Shaun snorted. "Perhaps it'd be faster to just list the things she **doesn't** know yet."

"I didn't mention anything about the First Civ, or the doomsday, or the temples. And I didn't give away this location. And she probably doesn't believe the stuff I told her, anyway!" he lied, in a vain attempt to salvage the situation. "For all she knows, I just went insane, moved to Italy, and got really into nighttime parkour."

At that point, Lucy returned. "Hey, crew! Who's ready for pizza?"

"It'll have to wait, Lucy! First we have to deal with 'Loose Lips' Miles here." Shaun made Desmond stay seated where he was, while he and the other two conferred privately across the room.

Desmond hadn't had much practice eavesdropping since he was Altaïr, but even without trying to, he couldn't help overhearing a few things from their huddle:

"...getting all chummy..."

"...tell William about this..."

"...got to sever all ties..."

"...love-addled fool!"

"...too harsh?"

"...damage control..."

"...even more suspicious..."

"...worst-case scenario..."

"...have to deal with the fallout..."

"...some damn good..."

Eventually, the three Assassins appeared to come to a consensus. They approached him, and Shaun spoke.

"Here's what's going to happen, Desmond." His tone, although even, was a bit condescending, like that of a no-nonsense father talking to his wayward child. "First we'll eat. Then Rebecca and I will go pay your friend a visit. Lucy will stay here and make sure you behave. If there's even a hint of trouble with... er..."

_He didn't even bother to ask her name, the prick. She's not a real person to him, just a security risk._ "Alexis." Desmond supplied tersely.

"Right. If there's even a hint that anything's dodgy with Alexis... you know what we'll have to do."

_No! He couldn't... _"You don't mean, like..." Desmond couldn't even say it. He flicked his wrist, miming the activation of a Hidden Blade, his face bleak.

"Yes." Shaun was stonefaced, his voice cold. "I don't like the idea any more than you do. But I will do it, if necessary. We're not in a position to take risks."

"...What if it's not necessary?" he dared to ask. "If you decide she **can **be trusted, after all?"

"If that's the case..." He hesitated a bit too long for Desmond's comfort. _Did they even consider that as a possibility?_ "...She knows too much now. Even if she doesn't believe what you've told her, there's still the likelihood that she'll let something slip to the wrong person, and unwittingly give the Order information they can use against us."

"So you'll kill her either way?! Just to be sure!?" Desmond leapt to his feet, furious. Shaun didn't flinch from his position.

"...I didn't say that. If you're right about her, she's an innocent. 'Stay your blade from the flesh of the innocent.' I may be an egotistical bastard, but even **I** don't consider myself above the Creed." Desmond was mollified. "Speaking of which, I do seem to remember something in there about not compromising the Brotherhood. You seem to have forgotten that part."

Having been briefly pacified by Shaun's earlier words, this accusation maddened Desmond again. "Hey! I haven't compromised anything! You take that back!" But Shaun was ignoring him, choosing instead to help himself to pizza.

Lucy took hold of Desmond's shoulder and spoke softly to him. "There's no use getting angry. You want your friend to remain alive after Shaun visits her? Riling him up won't help your chances. You want him to be calm, so he can assess the situation properly."

Breathing heavily, he tried to contain himself. _Shaun, if you dare harm her, I'll never forgive you._ He had no appetite. The pizza seemed to taste as bad as the pig livers from two nights ago. He wondered how Alexis would react to Rebecca and Shaun showing up instead of himself. _How exactly do they plan to test her allegiance?_

The group finished their meal in silence. Shaun left the table, heading to his work area. He removed a metallic white suitcase from a nook. From this he produced his own Hidden Blade. "I suppose you told her about these, too?" he shot over his shoulder as he affixed it to his wrist. "Doesn't matter, I guess. We've nothing else to do it with." He tugged his sleeve down to conceal the device.

Desmond felt sick. _It sounds like he's already made up his mind. I should have left well enough alone. Should have known they'd never go for it. Should have just had fun with Lexie this week, then let her leave, and forget all about her. She had a good life in New York. After this, she won't have a life at all. And it's all my fault. I had to be selfish, had to try to bring her with me into this whole fucking Assassin mess._

Shaun called to Rebecca. She followed him out, briefly giving Desmond a pained look. Once they were outside, she turned to Shaun. "Are you **trying **to make him hate you?"

"I am **trying **to make him reconsider taking such rash actions in the future."

"You might try going a little easier on him. He's still kind of a noob."

"He's not really," Shaun countered, irritated. "He lived on the Farm for sixteen years. And even after that, he was in hiding. You would think he'd be better at keeping secrets."

"Well, I agree with you there. But you could have tried to keep a better handle on your temper."

"You girls are too soft on him."

They walked in silence for a minute or so, then Rebecca pointed ahead.

"That'll be the place. There's a light on; she must be expecting him. So, what's our game plan here?"

"We'll flank her. I'll take the window; you go to the door. Strike up a conversation while I look around inside. I'll be listening in, so if you get in trouble, use the code word," he thought for a moment, "...'moonlight'. That'll be my cue."

"And if there's no trouble? If she's on the level?"

Shaun sighed and adjusted his glasses. "Then the code word will be 'You have to come with us, because you know too much.'" He went to the side of the house and, with some difficulty, started up the wall. _Oof, it's obvious it's been a while since he did any climbing,_ Rebecca mused. When he finally made it onto the roof, he gave her a thumbs-up. She approached the door and knocked.

"Coming!" a sing-song voice called out from the upper floor as footsteps thumped down. The door was opened by an excited-looking young woman, auburn hair slightly askew, dressed in a faded cotton nightgown that almost reached her slippered feet. _Not exactly what I picture when I think 'Templar spy',_ Rebecca thought. _But, what did I expect? Abstergo Industries t-shirt? White tunic with a giant red cross?_

When she saw Rebecca, the girl's smile almost instantly morphed to a quizzical look. "Uh... buonasera... Posso ayutarla?" she said, her pronunciation faltering.

"Hello there! How ya' doing?"

"Oh, you speak English. That's good. I was about to go grab my phrasebook. Um, how can I help you?"

"Yeah, I've just had a derp moment and locked my keys and purse in the car," the Assassin gestured to a vehicle down the road, "and I was wondering if I can use your phone?"

Alexis surveyed the stranger's outfit. _What's with the jumpsuit? Why's she only wearing the one glove? _"Sure," she replied after a moment. "Landline okay? I don't want to use my international minutes." She shifted aside to allow the strangely-dressed woman entry.

"Hey thanks." Rebecca strode in, surreptitiously taking note of the surroundings. "My name's Laura, by the way."

"I'm, ah, Sandra. The phone's over here."

_Using a fake name? Or is 'Alexis' the fake?_ So as not to leave behind fingerprints, Rebecca lifted the phone with her gloved hand. Using her fingernails, she dialed a number she knew was dead. After pausing, waiting for an imaginary ring and an imaginary answer, she said "Hi, Aaron? It's Laura..."

Meanwhile, Shaun had quietly entered through the window, which had been left unlocked. _Presumably so Desmond can get in... _The upstairs, consisting of a dining area, bedroom, and bath, appeared ostensibly normal. The remains of a dinner for one laid on the small table. He pulled on a pair of thin gloves and began to poke around. There was nothing incriminating in the cupboards, nor in the kitchen drawers or fridge.

"...All right, let's meet up in about, say, ten, fifteen minutes?... Yeah, the fountain by the church." _That should give me and Shaun enough time._ 'Laura' hung up the handset and turned to speak to 'Sandra'. "My friend's going to come pick me up in a bit. Okay if I wait here until then? It's chilly out." The other woman was looking out the window. She nodded noncommittally.

Having convinced himself the kitchen held nothing of interest, Shaun set about investigating the bedroom. There was a large suitcase on the floor, opened, the contents partially scattered. On the bedside table, beside a dog-eared paperback titled _Rick Steve's Italian Phrase Book & Dictionary_, he spotted a phone. _Bingo._

The password lock was easily bypassed by the small device Shaun plugged into the headphone jack. _Let's see... recent texts..._ The last one sent was"Taking off!", from four days ago. Before that there was a conversation with someone named Anne... "i rly think u'll feel better after the vacay", "get ur mind of of wilson 4 once." _Templars are all about 'order', I'd have thought they wouldn't go in for bloody textspeak._ He switched to the email app. _Flight confirmation... reservations... your order has shipped... Hello, what's this?_ A long email thread with the subject line "Desmond Wilson case". Whoever this girl was, she had been contacting the NYPD. He skimmed the thread, starting at the newest reply.

**To: Alexis Chandler: Nothing solid at this time, Ms. Chandler. If we need anything else, I'll have one of my men contact you...**

**To: Captain Disher: I put up more flyers this weekend. Have you gotten any new leads?**

**To: Alexis Chandler: It's possible. We're not discounting anything at this point...**

**To: Captain Disher: I think it was somewhere in South Dakota. He ran away from them almost a decade ago, and hasn't had any contact with them since. Do you think they're involved?**

**To: Alexis Chandler: I can't disclose anything from those interviews. You mentioned he had connections to a cult organization. Do you recall any details?**

**To: Captain Disher: I've attached some photos. The tattoo is pretty distinctive... Did you get any leads from his coworkers?**

Gears were shifting uncomfortably in Shaun's head. The image he had conjured up, of a cold-hearted Templar spy using feminine wiles to deceive the naïve Desmond into betrayal, was beginning to seem ridiculous. He glanced at the thumbnails under the message. Excited Desmond, his hands in the air, at a music concert. Laughing Desmond, trying on a funny-looking hat. _It sure looks like she was his friend. I can't let my guard down, though. Giovanni thought Uberto was his friend, and we saw how that turned out._

He tapped "abstergo" into the email search box. _She could've deleted anything incriminating, but it won't hurt to check._ No results. He tried "assassin": nothing. "animus": nothing. "apple": ...A forwarded cobbler recipe, and deals on iPads. "Order" brought up "Your order has shipped" again. "brotherhood" and "templar" came up empty, and so did "father of understanding" and "piece of eden". When "p.o.e." gave him "FWD: OMG this poem is soo beuatiful!" he closed the app in disgust.

"So where are you from?" Rebecca asked, acting casual. The two women were seated on the couch, an undercurrent of awkwardness between them.

"Atlanta." she replied, giving another furtive look out the window, which Rebecca pretended not to notice. "Oh... I'm from Chicago. Just graduated UIC Engineering this year." She checked her watch, wondering about Shaun's status.

"Engineering, huh? I'm no good with that kind of stuff. I'm better with people than machines."

Shaun opened the contact book and scrolled through. A familiar face was pinned to the top as a favourite, labeled "Desmond Wilson". _William's son... He sure picked a stupid alias. _Lucy had given him a list of some people at Abstergo, but none of those names were in Alexis' contacts. He briefly checked the internet history before tossing the phone back where he found it.

He rifled through the suitcase. No weapons, no dossiers, no suspiciously cruciform jewelry. _If she's a Templar, she's spectacularly good at hiding it._ After a perfunctory look around the bathroom yielded a similar lack of evidence, Shaun descended the stairs.

"Well, Aaron is probably at the church by now. I'll go meet him there. Sorry for the intrusion." Rebecca was just getting up from the sofa when she saw Shaun coming down.

"You can drop the act, Rebecca. It seems she's legit."

"Gah!" Alexis yelped, jumping at the unexpected voice. She whirled to face him. "Wha- How did you get in here?!"

"The window's unlocked," he answered matter-of-factly. "Calm down, I'm not going to hurt you. Unless you give me reason to."

"You're..." She looked at his wrists for a second, then back to his face. "...are you Shaun?"

_He gave out our names, even? _He hadn't expected that, and it threw him slightly. Trying to maintain control of the conversation, he countered with "Are you Alexis?"

"Eh... yes." She seemed slightly calmer now.

Rebecca stayed behind Alexis, keeping her between them in case she made any sudden moves. "Find anything up there?" she asked.

"Just normal vacation stuff, it seems. No red flags."

"You were looking through my stuff? ... Oh, I get it. You didn't trust me... You had to check me out, even though Desmond vouched for me."

"What do you know about Desmond?" Rebecca asked her pointedly.

Alexis chuckled. "Probably more than you do. But you don't mean like his favorite bands, you're only asking about the stuff I learned this week, right?" She sat back down. "Ah, where should I start... I know he's with you guys because you busted him out of Abstergo. You're a secret organization that he was born into and you fight Abstergo, who are secretly power-hungry tyrants. And they secretly invented some machine that replays memories from the past. And this machine is supposed to help them control the world. But you built another machine," here she pointed to Rebecca, "and Desmond goes in it and does stuff in medieval Italy, which somehow helps y'all stop Abstergo."

"You're off on a couple of details, but that's about the size of it." Shaun sighed. "All right then. Pack your stuff."

"Right now? You mean I'm in? Just like that?"

"In what? In the Brotherhood? Christ, no. In custody, more like."

"What do you mean?"

"He means you know too much," Rebecca explained. "You're no spy, but you might spill the beans to someone who is."

"Like Anne, for example."

"Desmond told you about Anne?"

"Yeah." Shaun fabricated, deciding she didn't need to know the full extent of his snooping. "It was her idea for you to come here, right? Here's a theory: She's working for Abstergo. She knows you're close with Desmond, and Abstergo knows he's still in Italy. She arranges for you to have an Italian vacation, in a spot with historical ties to the Assassins, hoping we'd brought him there and you'd 'coincidentally' meet him. You wouldn't be able to resist telling her you finally found your lost boyfriend. Then they have confirmation of our location, they send in their troops, and bam, we're all dead."

"That- that's not a theory. That's a hypothesis."

"Well if we're going to be pedantic, it's **Renaissance **Italy, not medieval Italy. Get your stuff together and let's move. Leave your phone and any other electronic gizmos; they can be tracked. You might want to change out of your pyjamas."

* * *

Endnotes:

This chapter was originally to be titled "Scoprendo".

"pick and choose who they allow into their inner circle" - Ref. ACIV: Few people who worked at Abstergo Entertainment were aware of the parent company's true motives.

"like yours truly, who inadvertently got into hot water with the enemy" - Ref. ACIII database entry about Shaun. (What an egomaniac. Made a database entry on himself, but not on any other modern Assassins.)

"your father recruited some assassins..." - Ref. ACR: The Lost Archive. It's likely he recruited others besides Clay

Hephaestus is the Assassin's email system. But you already knew that if you were a **real **AC fan.

"He removed a metallic white suitcase from a nook. From this he produced his own Hidden Blade." In ACB, Lucy, Rebecca, and Shaun each have such a suitcase near them. It seems feasible to suggest this is what's inside...

"Nothing incriminating... in the fridge": Why did Shaun waste time looking in the fridge anyway, did he think that she would have, like, special food that only Templars eat? Maybe he was looking for yogurt.


	5. Chapter 5: Introduzioni

Chapter 5: Introduzioni

Desmond was curled in his sleeping bag, but there was no way he could relax right now. He couldn't shake the image of Shaun strapping on his blade, the recollection of his words: "We've nothing else to do it with." _She **is **innocent. Even stupid paranoid Shaun should be able to see that... Maybe he was just trying to freak me out... Maybe he was just trying to act like a badass instead of a bookworm for once... If this is his idea of a prank, I'll kick his ass._

He heard footsteps echoing from the entrance tunnel. Sitting up abruptly, he tried to discern whether there were just two people approaching, or three...

He didn't have to wonder for long. Shaun's voice soon called out to him and Lucy. "All right people. It seems this chapter of our little 'cult' is taking on a new colleague." He was back to his normal annoyed tone, rather than the cold, emotionless way he had spoken earlier. "...Here she is, the fabled Alexis."

Desmond was instantly at her side. "Lexie!" He wrapped her in a sudden hug. "I hope these two creeps didn't scare you too much."

"We're creeps now?" Rebecca sounded hurt. "We were just looking out for you. For all of us, really."

"And I'm still only about eighty-eight percent sure she's not a pawn of the Templars, so she's not off the hook yet. Remember what happened with Uberto!"

"I'm okay, Des," his friend assured him, patting his back. "All they did was snoop around the place and then question me a little bit." _Does she realize her life was just on the line?_ "Who's Uberto?" she asked.

"...Templar who killed most of my- most of **Ezio's **family." he muttered, hating to be reminded of the painful memory. "Pretended to be their friend."

"Daamn. No wonder y'all are so cautious about new people." Sensing his anguish, she quickly changed the subject. "So, this is your safehouse?" Her eyes were roaming, taking in the scattered crates, the marble statues, the sleeping bags, the stone chunks fallen from the vaulted ceiling. "I guess I was thinking too literally. I was expecting more of a... house."

"The safety part is a whole lot more important." Lucy said.

"Safety... of course." Her gaze lingered on the huge boulders.

"Hey, that only happened after the Pope hit it with a million cannonballs!" Rebecca reassured her. She was already back at the computer.

"All right, all right... So where should I put my stuff?"

"Pick a spot, any spot. We're not concerned with feng shui around here. My name's Rebecca, by the way."

"Yeah, Desmond told me you're the tech guru of the squad." Alexis set down her suitcase between two of the statues. With all the scrutiny she'd just endured, she hadn't expected this kind of laid-back atmosphere, but she was glad for it.

"So by process of elimination, you must be Lucy." She turned to face the blonde.

"That's me."

While the girls were getting acquainted, Shaun pulled Desmond aside. "What now?"

"Look, sorry I had to be a hardass earlier, but you can't just be revealing stuff willy-nilly. Don't go telling her anything else without running it past one of us first."

"Oh, now I have to have permission to talk to her? You still don't trust her? Don't trust the Eagle Vision?"

He scoffed. "We don't have any real data on how that works. It seems pretty reliable for finding hidden objects and codes, but people's motives and allegiances are a lot more complex. Maybe it's just influenced by preconceived notions of who you **think **is on your side. Or maybe your vision isn't as good as your ancestors' yet."

"Whatever. Thanks for not killing her, at least." Desmond shuffled back to the others, clearly not wanting to talk to him anymore right now.

"These are some neat statues." Alexis was saying. "What's this symbol they're all wearing?"

"**That **is the Assassin... logo, I guess you could say." _That's surely okay to tell her. It's no secret._

"Logo? Are we a business now, Desmond? Like Abstergo?"

"What do you call it then, Becca?"

"Symbol, sigil, crest, emblem, whatever. Just anything besides 'logo'." Rebecca made a face of disgust at the word's corporate implications.

"Fine. It's the Assassin... crest," he decided. "They're statues of ancient Assassins, Lex. From different places and times, but all united by the same crest and creed."

"How poetic."

"Ah, bollocks."

"Hey, they **are **Assassins, don't try to tell me I'm wrong about that!"

"That wasn't a 'you're wrong' bollocks. It's 'I've just realized we only have four sleeping bags' bollocks."

"...I'll just share with Desmond," Alexis proposed.

Shaun made an exasperated noise. "Fine, but no monkey business, you two."

"Don't mind him, he thinks he's standing in for my dad or something." Desmond said under his breath. "We don't all sleep at the same time anyway; there's always somebody keeping watch. I like your idea, though."

He was finally able to relax. The other Assassins had accepted her, albeit tentatively. For once, Desmond slept soundly, the warmth of Alexis comforting him.

* * *

When Alexis awoke, she was at first confused by the unfamiliar surroundings, but then the events of last night rushed back through her mind, and she bolted upright. The others were already up and eating what looked to be a fast-food breakfast.

"You sure you don't want to sleep in a little?" Desmond asked as she pulled up a chair. "You had kind of an intense night."

"No way I could go back to sleep now. I'm totally wired." She winked at Shaun. "Don't worry, I mean 'excited' wired, not like 'I'm actually a spy and I'm recording this conversation' wired." Shaun didn't laugh.

As the meal wound down, Lucy spoke up. "All right people. I know we had kind of a weird turn of events yesterday, but we can't let that throw us off track. We're sticking to the schedule."

"Okay, I guess it's Animus time then." Desmond polished off the last bite of his panino, then settled into the sleek red "Baby", putting his arm in its slot as Rebecca checked the tuning of the apparatus on the head end.

"That lounge chair is the Animus, huh... You just lie there? Don't have to plug it into yourself, like the Matrix?"

_Silly girl. She saw me naked, she knows there's no headjack on my neck_, Desmond thought.

"Pull up a seat, Lex." Rebecca motioned to her. "We keep track of what's happening on these monitors."

The DNA timeline twisted across the screen, with the start point labeled "1459, Ezio Auditore". "Auditore? The guy who lived in this villa?"

"That's the guy. He had the Apple of Eden and hid it somewhere during this memory sequence." She pointed a gloved finger at a blacked-out segment of the timeline. "But that data is all scrambled. Desmond has to complete these previous memories before he can access it."

Making little scrolling motions with his fingers, Desmond selected Ezio's next memory. The room around him dissolved away and was replaced by the blankness of the Animus loading area.

While Rebecca and Alexis were focusing on Desmond and the Animus, Lucy approached Shaun and spoke in a low voice. "Were you serious when you said you were only eighty-eight percent sure about her?"

"Well, she's certainly no Templar. But it's possible she was sent here as a decoy to lure Desmond out. I made sure she doesn't have anything on her that could transmit a signal, though. We should be all right as long as we keep an eye on her. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to explain this to Bill." He nodded towards his monitor, where he was composing an email.

Alexis watched with fascination as Ezio infiltrated a lavish party, hiding amidst the revelers, sending out women to distract guards, then taking a seat on a bench, seeming to relax, until suddenly, he leapt up and plunged his blade into a fat man with a wide-brimmed red hat.

In reply to the question she had been about to ask, Rebecca said, "That was Juan Borgia. He financed Cesare's military campaign, among other things... and he liked to throw parties."

Alexis made an inscrutable "mm-hm" sound. _He doesn't sound all that evil. But Desmond just killed him... well, simulated killing him, I guess... But, he's only doing it, because his ancestor did it. And he needed to do it for Italy to be free, right?_ She recalled Desmond's words: "Good guys sometimes have to kill bad guys." She had accepted this, but actually seeing it happen, even if just on a computer screen, really brought it home.

**Subject: The new girl**

**William,**

**We've had to make an unexpected addition to the group. Her name is Alexis Chandler (or so she says). She was a friend of Desmond before all this kicked off. He'd made contact with her multiple times before telling any of us about her. He told her too much for her own good, so we brought her in last night. From what I can discern, she's an outsider to all this; no connections with either side. Where would you go from here?**

**Shaun**

He looked over the message once more, then added "PS: What do you know about Eagle Vision?" before finally sending it, then closing the Hephaestus window to get back to the Animus feed.

Ezio was back at the Rosa in Fiore, but was informed that some Borgia thugs had beaten him there, in pursuit of the banker's money. He opened the door, braced for a fight, but everyone was surprised to see that Claudia had already dispatched the goons.

"All **right**! Girl power!" Rebecca whooped. Alexis realized she was really going to have to get used to seeing dead people.

* * *

Endnote:

"Don't have to plug yourself into it, like the Matrix?" - In _ACII_, the first time Desmond goes in the Animus 2.0, he does have to get "plugged in". But you never see that happen again in the games... he just puts his arm there. So my headcanon is that you only need to do that the first time. Like, that plug device takes a sample of your DNA, and then the part on your head reads your brainwaves and associates that with the DNA, and then on subsequent re-entry to the Animus, it just takes the brainwaves and pulls up the DNA it has on file for that brain.


	6. Chapter 6: Dettagli

Chapter 6: Dettagli

During dinner, Alexis piped up. "Hey, if these are all Assassins," she gestured to one statue in particular, "how come only this guy has one of those hide-a-shanks?"

Desmond nearly choked on his soda. He coughed and sputtered.

"You okay?"

"Sorry," he gasped. "I just... 'hide-a-shank'. Pfft!" He couldn't contain his laughter. Rebecca was giggling a little as well. Lucy just rolled her eyes.

"That's Darius of Persia." Shaun informed her. "First recorded user of the Hidden Blade. Fifth-century B.C.E. It didn't really become our trademark until much later."

"Wow... just how far back in history does all this go?"

The Assassins exchanged glances. They were all thinking the same thing. Subject 16's video. Adam and Eve. Even if she could be trusted with this knowledge, it would be difficult to explain. The room was silent except for Alexis: "Uh, guys? Hello?"

"We don't know," Shaun finally answered. That much was true. The date of the memory had been redacted by Abstergo.

"There's more to it than that, though, right?" she said, her eyes narrowing. "Okay. Whatever it is, you're clearly not ready to share that info with me yet. I get it. Didn't mean to open a can of worms." She went back to eating her spaghetti.

Desmond intervened to prevent an awkward silence from descending. "You're wrong, Lexie. Altaïr's got a Hidden Blade too." He pointed to the statue given pride of place. "I was trying to tell you before but I was laughing too hard."

"Oh... I guess I missed that. So what's his story, Shaun? It looks like he's, like, the most important one here."

"You don't have to ask Shaun," Lucy said. "Desmond could tell you all about Altaïr."

"Well, maybe not **all** about him. I only lived a few months of his life."

Alexis went "Mmuh?", her mouth full.

"Altaïr Ibn La-Ahad." A strange accent crept into Desmond's voice when he said the name. "The guy whose memories I had to relive at Abstergo. He was a great fighter, but kind of an arrogant cock, and he didn't respect the Creed. He eventually screwed up an important mission, got another Assassin killed, and was demoted back to novice rank. Then he had to defeat his Mentor, who had been corrupted by the Apple's power. Afterwards, Altaïr became the new Mentor, and kind of reorganized... no, **reinvented** the Brotherhood."

"The head honcho of the Assassins is called the Mentor," Rebecca clarified.

Desmond went on to relate what he'd learned from Altaïr's writings in the Codex. "It was his idea to have secret bases instead of a giant citadel that screams 'Hey Templars, come and get us!' And he made a bunch of cool upgrades for the Hidden Blade. Made it so you didn't have to cut off a finger to use it," Alexis winced, "invented the gun attachment-"

"Gun? Yours doesn't have a gun."

"He doesn't need a fucking gun, he just sits in the Animus all day!" Shaun groaned, stabbing his fork into a meatball.

"So, yeah, Altaïr was a pretty important figure for the Assassins." Desmond concluded.

"I heard he killed Genghis Khan, too," Lucy added.

"Geez, was **every** bad guy in history a Templar?" Alexis said.

"This is a fascinating talk, but if you don't mind, I think we have more immediate matters to discuss," Shaun interjected, suddenly realizing a pressing issue. "When's your vacation supposed to end?"

"Ah, the return flight is on the eighth... Monday morning."

"So that gives us tomorrow and Sunday."

"To do what exactly?"

"To throw them off the trail." Rebecca said. "Once you don't return on that flight, people will start looking for you."

"You mean, Abstergo?"

"If they were behind your choice of vacation spot, then they'll be the first to suspect something's up," Shaun said. "If they didn't orchestrate this little rendezvous, they'll sure be looking into it once your family and friends file a missing person case, because that case will certainly mention the fact that your pal Desmond also disappeared recently. There's lots of Templars on the police force, you know."

"So, what do we do?"

"Make sure there's nothing in that house that can lead back here. Maybe plant something to lead somewhere else," Rebecca answered. "We'll go there tonight, you and me."

* * *

Alexis and Rebecca started up the ramp to the surface, the latter bearing an odd toolbox. "So, how long have you known Desmond?"

"Couple years... How 'bout you? You grow up with him on that commune?"

"What, you mean the Farm? Nah, I was raised in the normal world."

"How'd you get into this?"

"Not to brag or anything, but they needed someone with my kind of mad techno-skills. Speaking of skills, do you have a job, an employer who's gonna notice your absence?" The redhead nodded. "You'll need to tender your resignation, then. If you're not working there anymore, they won't be asking where you went."

"I suppose I should think of a cover story."

"You could say you fell madly in love with a steamy Italian hunk and you're moving to his rural vineyard."

"I suppose... if we can't think of anything more plausible."

When they got to the house, there were dishes in the sink, her phone was still on the bedside table, and the sheets were rumpled, but other than that, there was no sign of Alexis' brief stay.

"Get your mobile."

"But Shaun said they can track it."

"Yeah, which is why we're going to drop it somewhere. Okay, put on your CSI hat. Did Desmond leave behind any evidence that he was here? Fingerprints, body fluids, what have you?"

"Ah, we... we had some wine. There's probably prints on the glass."

"Go wipe it down." Rebecca handed her a cloth. "I'm not kidding about the body fluids, you know. He's a guy. You're his girlfriend. If you two did the deed, we gotta make sure there's nothing-"

"There's nothing! We... we cleaned up afterward." Her face had turned red.

"I'm gonna check just to be sure." The dark-haired Assassin took a black light emitter from her toolbox and switched it on. Alexis knew she was just thinking of the security implications, but it was still weird. She pocketed her phone and went back out to the kitchen to clean the wine glass as instructed. Looking around, she mentally reviewed these last few nights, trying to think if Desmond's fingerprints might have gotten on anything else.

"Welp, looks like you did a good job with that cleanup." Rebecca said as she returned to the dining area. "You got any of that wine left?"

The other woman was gazing out the window at the night sky. "You know, he ran away from me at first."

"Eh?"

"On Monday night. When Desmond first saw me, he... the first thing he did was turn and start to run away."

"Really." _Well, if she had been a Templar, and had already recognized him, running away wouldn't have helped. He could have led her right to us if he wasn't careful._

"But then he came back, 'cause I was yelling his name at the top of my lungs."

"Mm. What if he'd kept running?"

"I probably would have written it off as a dream... Heh. Things have just gotten more surreal from there. I couldn't dream something this wild."

As Alexis was locking the door behind them, Rebecca pointed across the road to the bank. "While we're here, you should probably get some cash from the ATM. You're gonna be living off us for a while, and our funds are already kind of limited."

"Oh, right." She hadn't realized it before, but the Assassins were essentially providing her room and board now, and she wasn't even doing anything for them in return. She felt suddenly indebted, and knew she was blushing again.

"Don't take out too much, it'll seem weird," Rebecca cautioned. "Maybe a hundred euros or so. Speaking of money. The rent on that house-"

"It's fine, I prepaid for the week." Alexis finished her transaction and stowed the blue bills in her pocket. "Where are we dropping the phone?"

"This should do." Rebecca walked up to a white van with "Posteitaliane" emblazoned on the side. She produced something else from her toolbox. "Duct tape has a million uses. Use number 4,071: Tape your phone to the bottom of a mail van to lead Templars on a wild goose chase."

* * *

"Alex! You need to start pulling your weight around here. Stop lazing about and come help with lunch."

Alexis looked up from the Animus feed, where Ezio was stalking French soldiers. She rose from her seat next to Rebecca and went to Shaun, who was stirring some soup on a camp stove. "Okay, chief, what's my mission?"

"Make a salad to go with this. There's veg in the fridge." He handed her a cutting knife.

_Guess he finally trusts me_, she thought, taking the blade. She retrieved lettuce, zucchini, and carrots, and began chopping.

"Hey, Shaun, I've been meaning to ask... Do you know whose idea it was to name this thing Assassins?"

He was miffed at her use of "this thing" to describe the timeless concept of the Brotherhood, but he answered anyway, always amenable to an opportunity to talk history.

"Well, it's derived from Arabic, 'assass', for 'foundation', 'fundamentals'. But detractors throughout history have spread the false etymology that it means "hashish users", essentially slandering our order as a bunch of druggies who would literally kill to get their fix. Eventually, tales of Hashashin, Assassiun, Assassini, etc. became so widespread that the word became synonymous with any ideological killer, whether it was someone bound by the Creed or just some random madman."

"At that point, why not rebrand yourselves? I'd go for something like 'Freedom Guys'."

"Actually, in the third century, during Rome's Imperial Crisis, we were known as the Liberalis Circulum. Quite literally, 'free group'. But for some reason, once 'Assassins' caught on, nobody bothered to change it. I'll try running 'Freedom Guys' past our PR department at the next quarterly."

Alexis laughed. "PR department! Nice." She playfully chucked him in the arm, almost making him splash soup over the side of the pot. "Ah... you mentioned being 'bound by the creed'... This is like the third time someone's mentioned a creed. Care to elaborate?"

_Does she ever run out of questions?_ "There are three tenets in the Assassin's Creed: Stay your blade from the flesh of the innocent. Hide in plain sight. Never compromise the Brotherhood." he recited, robotically.

"Niente è vero, tutto è permesso." Desmond added, his voice surprising the two. He was out of the Animus now and had come to check on the status of the meal.

"What?" Alexis asked.

"I was getting to that part!" Shaun turned the stove off and cleared his throat. "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted. A kind of corollary to the tenets."

"It sounds cooler in Italian," Desmond murmured.

"You mean, like, moral relativism?" She sounded dubious. "Wait, that doesn't even make sense. If everything's permitted then why can't you hurt an innocent?"

"It's not like that. It's kind of a metaphor... it means you're supposed to think for yourself and stuff." Desmond said. "Question everything, don't limit yourself, don't blindly obey authority, et cetera."

Alexis set out four bowls of salad. "Huh... that sounds like a pretty good philosophy. It's kinda what I strive for, actually."

"Well then you'll fit right in!" Rebecca said jovially, as she and Lucy joined them at the table. "Do we have any dressing for this salad?"

"Italian, of course."

* * *

**10/06/2012**  
**12:18 PM  
**

**RE: The new girl**

**Shaun,**

**Alexis- Probably best you picked her up. I trust you covered your tracks. I checked the databases. There's nothing on her specifically, but we have files on a bunch of people with the same surname, some allied with us, some not. For now, keep her on a need-to-know basis, and try to find out about her background, her family.**

**Eagle Vision- You probably know as much as I do, if not more, due to working with Desmond. He's an outlier, though, since he acquired it through the Animus. The sparse reports we have on file indicate it invariably manifests in early childhood, if not present from birth. EV was never common, but it seems to be getting rarer. Underlying mechanism remains unknown. As you might imagine, researching this is not currently a high priority.**

**William**

* * *

Ezio seemed to be carefully examining the Rosa in Fiore building.

"Hey, Desmond, I don't know if you're looking for something from Sixteen, but last time, scanning with Eagle Vision seemed to help."

"Duh, Shaun, I don't need you to keep reminding me. I've got the hang of it by now."

Alexis turned to Rebecca. "What is he talking about?"

"Oh, you don't know... Desmond was Abstergo's seventeenth Animus research subject. The one before him was Subject Sixteen. He hid some encoded messages in the Animus memory core. Desmond's trying to find them and decrypt them."

"And, eagle vision?"

"Hm, well, it's this ability-"

"Let me show her." Desmond spoke up. "It'll be faster than trying to explain it in words." Alexis watched as, in a flash, the colors of the Animus video feed shifted. She saw, through Desmond's eyes, through Ezio's eyes, the blue glow of a gaggle of courtesans, the silvery sheen of a haystack, the red aura of a Borgia patrol rounding the corner. "And there it is." A bright blocky patch of aquamarine came into view on the wall above him. Ezio climbed through it.

"Loading...Scanning... Scanning... Scanning... What am I? What am I? Lost..." A warbling rendition of "Home on the Range" began playing. "Geez, just when I think I've seen it all. This just gets curiouser and curiouser," Alexis muttered.

* * *

Endnotes:

-"How'd you get into this?" - I love the song "Assassin's Creed" by Insane Ian. Mayan mystery, a conspiracy, How'd I get into this?

-origin of the word "Assassin" - IRL, there are actually a lot of competing ideas on this. I chose this interpretation for my story. Ref. a) the excellent paper "Assassin's Creed: A Multi-Cultural Read" by El-Nasr et al. b) the "Etymology" section of Wikipedia's page on Assassins. Yeah, I researched the fuck outta writing this one conversation.

-"Liberalis Circulum": ref. _Ankh of Isis_ graphic novels

-As usual, this chapter had a couple of different titles while I was working on it: "Domanda" and "Segretezza". I was originally going to use "Dettagli" for chapter two.


	7. Chapter 7: Antenata

"All that work just for three seconds of garbage and 'cle'?"

"We'll have to decode all the clusters and combine them to get the full message." Lucy said.

"Sixteen was crazy... crazy good at encryption, that is." Rebecca said jokingly. There was something in her tone, in the way Lucy looked away when she said it, that unnerved Alexis. And not just the fact that she'd used the past tense.

"He... or she... had mental health issues?"

There was a significant pause before Lucy answered. "Subject Sixteen experienced... adverse effects... from prolonged Animus usage." She was looking at her keyboard, avoiding eye contact.

"What **kind **of effects?" Alexis probed, warily.

"...Self-injurious behavior. Manic episodes. Mental instability... He became unable to distinguish between himself and his ancestors."

_"Goddamn Bleeding Effect..."_ Alexis recalled Desmond's panicked screams the night they'd slept together, the way he'd almost said "my family" instead of "Ezio's family" the other day. Alarmed, she asked, "What about Desmond?"

"He's already had some brief hallucinations, but taking frequent breaks seems to be the key to staving off the worst of it."

"Speaking of which..." Rebecca checked a clock on her screen. "Yo, Des! You're about due for another break now."

"A'ight." His eyes, which had been roaming about, looking at Rome, became focused and still as he returned to himself. Sitting up, he caught sight of Alexis, distress apparent on her face. "You okay?"

"Never mind me, what about you? Are you having any more of those Bleeding Effects?"

"Wait, you already know what it's called?" Shaun asked, confused.

"I guess I did mention it to her before," Desmond recalled.

"Yeah, but I thought it was limited to your dreams!" she said, sounding irate. "You didn't tell me you were actually hallucinating!"

"Can you blame me? Come on, you were already skeptical about the Animus, the Apple, the Assassins, and Abstergo," he unintentionally alliterated. "If I'd said I was having visions of people from hundreds of years ago, you'd have really thought I excaped from the loony bin!"

"Oh... you got a point there," she admitted.

"It hasn't happened for a while, though." He thought for a moment. "The last bad one was... that second night I went to see you."

"It's possible that Alexis is helping to keep your mind grounded in the present day." Lucy hypothesised. "I'm guessing you have a lot of memories of her, memories that are clearly 21st-century. So when she's around, you can more easily stay anchored to yourself, to 2012."

"Sweet, I'm actually helping." Alexis made two thumbs up. "Without even knowing it, even."

* * *

The next day was Sunday, and the group was taking a break. Out of all the religious concepts promulgated by their zealot adversaries, the cultural designation of Sunday as a day of rest was one that the Assassins had never deemed worth fighting.

The last memory Desmond had synced had been Claudia's initiation into the Brotherhood. "Why did they all jump into the river at the end?" Alexis wondered.

"Eh, it's a tradition. At Masyaf, Al Mualim would have Assassins publicly leap to their death so Templars would fear his army's fearlessness. Except they weren't leaping to their death. They landed safely in piles of hay."

"Oh, interesting... When you do that in the Animus, does it feel like you're really jumping, really falling?"

"Yeah, it really does."

"If you want, I can adjust the pain settings to make it even more realistic," Rebecca offered. "You know, for when Ezio gets injured. Or when you're halfway up a tower and miss a handhold, and you smash into the gr-"

"No thank you!" Desmond cut her off. "Pain settings are fine the way they are!"

Shaun only half-listened to the conversation, paying more attention to his computer screen. Alexis had tried asking what he was doing, but he hadn't elaborated beyond "Oh, just reading some boring historical dossiers, you wouldn't be interested."

"Do any of you guys use the Animus ever? Or just Desmond?"

"I tested it out a bit," Rebecca said. "My ancestor was some Prussian military grunt. Boring!"

"You only looked at one of your ancestors? Couldn't you just switch to someone less boring?"

"You have to sync pretty well with the first one you get before you can move on. I didn't want to put in all that time. Like I said, I was really just testing it."

"What do you mean, 'the first one you get'?"

Lucy clarified. "Not all genetic pathways are easily accessible, especially for new subje... users." She cleared her throat, slightly embarrassed at almost slipping back into Abstergo terminology. "The Animus system contains a subroutine that tries to select an ancestor who's similar to the user. Same gender, same language, not too far back in time, and so on. That way it's less jarring to relive them. Once an adequate level of synchronization is established with this 'alpha ancestor', other, more distant ones become somewhat more manageable."

This was news to Desmond. "Is that why I had such a hard time of it at Abstergo? Because they were dead-set on having me relive Altaïr?"

"You got it. It would have been a lot easier if you started with someone from 19th-century America, for example, instead of 12th-century Syria. But Vidic didn't want to waste time on syncing your alpha; he just wanted Altaïr's map."

"On the plus side, your high synch with Altaïr allows you to connect to Ezio much better." Rebecca added.

Shaun then spoke up. "Would you be interested in taking the Animus for a spin, Alexis?"

"Ahh... maybe? You're sure it's safe?" She did wonder what it was like to use the machine, but the possibility of those "adverse effects" was putting a damper on her curiosity.

He waved off her concern. "Oh, a couple short sessions can't hurt. Look at Rebecca: she came out of it unscathed. She's always been a weirdo, the Animus didn't make her that way."

Shaun seemed uncharacteristically upbeat, and Desmond looked askance at him, wondering what was up.

"Uh, okay, I guess." Alexis said. "Do I have to, like, do anything to prepare?"

"Nope," Rebecca answered, rummaging in a box under her table. "Just lie back and lemme stick this in ya." From the box, she held up a device. It looked like a USB cable or power cord. One end had several short sharp pins coming from it.

"I thought you didn't have to be plugged in!"

"When you go on your maiden voyage, you do. Baby has to read your DNA to get to your genetic memories. Desmond's is already on file."

"Ah, oookay. And you're sure I won't bleed out?"

"From this little thing? No way, unless you're hemophiliac or something."

"No, I mean, like Subject 16."

Desmond rolled his eyes and chuckled. "I get it. 'Bleed out'. She means the Bleeding Effect, but she made it into a verb."

"You'll be fine. The system tracks your vital signs and whatnot," Rebecca assured her. "I'll pull you out after about an hour, or sooner if it looks like you're having any problems."

"All right..." Her fears allayed, Alexis settled into the metallic contraption and offered her arm, into which Rebecca jabbed the Animus input. "Ah." _Just like getting a shot._

"Okay, now stay still. This part might take a few minutes." Messages began appearing on Rebecca's screen.

**New genome detected. Create new ancestry file?**

She hit "Y" . The system worked for a few moments, then Alexis cried out. "Dahh! I can't see anything! What happened?" Her eyes darted back and forth in vain.

"It's all white, yeah? Relax, that's just the loading screen," Desmond informed her.

**Scanning neural patterns...**  
**Compiling ancestral pathways...**  
**Searching for relevant memory data...**

Alexis waited with a mixture of trepidation and anticipation while the Animus analyzed her.

**Memory match found...**

She noticed she no longer felt the lingering pain in her forearm. Then she realized she couldn't feel her body at all. The hum of the computers, which she had grown accustomed to these past couple of days, was gone. The only thing Alexis sensed was the surreal whiteness surrounding her.

**Accessing memory...**

There arose an eerie chorus of crackling. The blank void reconfigured itself into a dense metropolis as block letters projected on her vision.

**DETROIT**  
**1860**

"1860," Desmond reflected. "That's... Civil War, right?"

"Not quite," Shaun replied. "Didn't kick off until '61."

Her viewpoint shifted, jumping to another perspective, then shifted again. Alexis felt like she should be getting nauseous, but somehow she wasn't. _This is so bizarre._

Desmond watched, fascinated. He unknowingly echoed his girlfriend's sentiments. "This is kinda bizarre. Seeing someone else use the Animus, I mean. Like, I almost wanna say, 'Hey, you're in my spot!'"

"Don't get all jelly," Rebecca teased. "You'll be back in there soon enough."

Another jump, and then Alexis was navigating a crowded street. She was walking quietly but with some urgency. A slightly fetid breeze pushed into her nostrils. Stepping over a murky brown puddle, she moved into a small side street, then down another even smaller alleyway. Alexis seemed to have no control over this body. _Just as well; I have no idea where I'm- where she's going._

Finally she arrived at an unassuming wooden door, produced a key from her satchel, and deftly unlocked it, glancing around briefly before passing through.

The interior appeared to be a small cafe or restaurant, bereft of customers or staff. Alexis- or rather, her ancestor- continued into the kitchen.

A sour-faced young man leaned against one of the grungy walls, but his expression turned to cheer when he caught sight of Alexis- _no, not Alexis, not me_, she reminded herself. She didn't know who she was yet.

The mustachioed man's greeting serendipitously provided an answer to that. "Leda! Another successful run, I take it?"

"Yes, Martin. Five more persons transported to freedom."

_Ohhh geez this is freaky!_ Alexis felt herself talking, but in someone else's voice. Leda's voice, which carried a foreign accent she couldn't identify. She was so thrown off by those eight words that she didn't catch the beginning of Martin's next sentence.

"... may not be needed in the coming years." he said, and then brought a folded paper out from his slightly tatty trousers. "On another note, our esteemed benefactor wishes to meet with you again. The details are written here."

Leda took the message and read it. Her heart rate accelerated slightly.

_LS_

_Once you have returned from your current expedition, I should like to speak with you. Disregard the spot we used for the previous meeting; AB tells me it is no longer secure. M's Church should be a suitable replacement venue. Send word when you arrive in Detroit and meet me -alone- in the shadow of the bell tower at the next dusk._

_Yours,_  
_Z_

She looked up from the letter and nodded to Martin.

"I should like to know what you two betalk in such secrecy," he said, a bushy eyebrow raised.

"If 'twere meant for your ears, you would already know." Again the strange feeling of speaking words that were not hers. "Any further news?"

The burly man shook his head, and Leda walked past him into a pantry half-stocked with foodstuffs. She bent down and lifted a floorboard to reveal a hidden stairwell. _What?_ Alexis was beginning to get a strange feeling about this Leda person.

As Leda began to descend, Alexis tried, hesitantly, to assert some control over her ancestor's movements. She stumbled in the half-light and nearly tripped. _Whoops._ Instinctively, she extended an arm, and was glad to find a handrail to stop herself (though not her actual self) from tumbling. She took a moment to find her balance and gauge the distance between the steps before continuing down.

The narrow stairwell led to a brick-lined corridor, which in turn led to a heavy-looking metal door. There was no handle, so she knocked. In response, a peephole slid open to reveal a pair of large brown eyes. The eyes regarded her for a moment before they disappeared and their owner unbolted the door.

Alexis didn't hear Desmond's surprised intake of breath when he saw the area beyond. The trappings were very different, far less opulent than Isola Tiberina, but the atmosphere was unmistakably the same. _This is an Assassin den. No doubt about it. Why didn't I realize before? Secret meetings, escorting people to freedom, no fucking duh!_

He turned from the monitor to address her. "Lexie, your ancestor is an Assassin!" When she didn't reply, Lucy said, "I'm guessing she can't hear us. Her brain's probably overwhelmed by all the unfamiliar experiences in the Animus, so outside stimuli aren't registering. It's common for this to happen the first time."

There were several rustic wooden tables furnishing the dimly-lit underground chamber: a mess of books and papers on one, a hearty meal of stew in tinware on another, an unidentifiable mechanical device on a third. Around each table were people, standing, sitting, leaning. Fifteen, perhaps twenty people in all. Alexis noticed many of them bore pistols at their belts. A couple of them looked up at her arrival and called out greetings. Leda nodded in reply, and approached one of the room's occupants in particular.

"Ester." The curly-haired woman looked up from her soup. "I need you to telegraph the Senator, that he may know to meet me on the morrow."

At this, Shaun's ears perked up, though the other Assassins took no notice.

"My... he's rather taken a shine to you, Leda."

"What do you mean?"

"I... Never mind." Ester shook her head very slightly. "It's nothing. I'll telegraph him after I've finished my supper. Have you eaten?"

She had not, and went to help herself from a large soup pot in the corner. _So this is clam chowder. Not bad_, Alexis mused. She'd never had it herself, since she had a terrible allergy to most shellfish. When Leda finished her meal, she went to a side chamber and collapsed onto a rickety bed. As she closed her eyes, the scene lost focus, and Alexis found herself alone in the whiteness again... the 'loading screen', Desmond had called it.

She took this opportunity to look down at the body she was inhabiting. Slender, yet strong-looking fingers, tipped with slightly grubby nails. A thin scar, about four inches long, marred one forearm. _Wonder how that happened... Wait, I've got her memories. Shouldn't I remember the story behind the scar? And shouldn't I know who she's going to meet tomorrow? I guess it doesn't work that way..._

Alexis had expected the memory to pick back up from Leda's awakening in that same bed, but instead the void gave way to the bustling streets of Detroit again. Her ancestor had changed from the utilitarian and slightly tomboyish riding habit she'd had on previously, to a much more cumbersome getup which included a bulky skirt. A corset enhanced Leda's petite bustline, and Alexis was glad it wasn't drawn too tightly. In her left hand she carried a light parasol, though the sun was almost set. _I suppose we're all dressed up to meet the mysterious Senator Z now... at M's Church, wherever that is..._

Alexis tried to mentally "hang back" and let Leda navigate, as had happened in the first part of the memory. However, it didn't work this time and she simply stood, buffeted by other Detroiters as they passed her. _So I have to find my way myself?_ She stepped haltingly down the street, peering upward from beneath the parasol, looking for a bell tower. All she saw was the slate gray evening sky and the unfamiliar storefronts.

"Looks like she's lost." Desmond pointed out her apparent predicament to Rebecca.

"Shaun, do you have a map I can import?"

"Great, more work for me. This is supposed to be my off day..." he grumbled, clicking through a seemingly endless maze of folders. "This is from '64, not '60, but it should do." He selected a file and keyed a command to send it to the Animus workstation.

"Got it." Rebecca tapped a rapid sequence of keystrokes.

**Converting geographic data...**  
**Extracting landmarks...**  
**Mapping to genetic memory locale...**

"There we go," Rebecca beamed. "HUD minimap enabled."

_Maybe I can ask someone for directions... or would that mess up my synchronization?_ Alexis was thinking, when she was suddenly surprised by the appearance of a circular inset in the lower right quadrant of her vision.

"What the?!"

She was doubly surprised when her shocked exclamation came out of Leda's mouth. A couple passing her on the street turned to look at her strangely.

"Ah, pardon me! I was just... stunned by this marvelous display!" Alexis adlibbed, gesturing to the products in the front window of a shop. This seemed to convince them she wasn't insane, and they continued on their way.

She looked more closely at the circle now. It was a map. A small one, only showing a couple of blocks surrounding her, but a map nevertheless. _Right when I was feeling lost. That's handy._ On the border of the map was a green marker, which she headed for. Soon, a stately house of worship came into view. She drew closer and saw someone at the foot of the bell tower. A sharply-dressed man- _well, I suppose that's normal dress for this time period, actually_- with a short cropped chinbeard, and hair that swept out on both sides of his head.

When she came near, he bowed and greeted her. "Lady Sisinis!"

_Interesting surname..._ "Senator Chandler," Leda replied, curtsying. _Wait, that's... is he also my ancestor?_

It hadn't escaped Desmond's notice. "Senator **Chandler**?"

"Yes. Zachariah Chandler. 1813 to 1879," Shaun elucidated. "A prominent businessman who later turned to politics. He was known for his anti-slavery stance and take-no-bullshit personality. Some say the 'Blood Letter' he wrote to Governor Blair was the spark that ignited your Civil War."

"Assassin?"

"Natch. Although he wasn't much for the 'killing Templars' side of things, his financial support was instrumental in the success of the Underground Railroad. You know what that is, I presume?"

"Yes, I know about the Underground Railroad," Desmond replied, slightly aggravated. "Excaping slaves, Canada, Harriet Tubman, all that jazz. But, he's got the same name as Alexis. You think-"

"Think she's related to him? It's possible. The history books show he only had one surviving child, and she was born sometime before 1850... but you've seen for yourself how wrong the history books can be." Shaun put on a high-pitched, mocking voice. "De Sablé died in 1193! The Templars were disbanded in 1312! Da Vinci never built a working war machine!"

"It has been too long," the senator said, looking warmly at Leda.

"It has been scarcely a month," she replied, almost monotone.

"Shall I take that to mean you have not missed me?" His face bore a strange expression, somewhere between a smirk and a pout.

"In honest truth, my work has occupied the vast majority of my time as of late."

"Ah." His face relaxed a bit. "Precious few idle moments to spend pining after an aged politician."

"You are not as aged as some, Senator." _Are they ...flirting?_ "And I do admit surprise that you have any idle moments yourself to meet with me. Are you not presently consumed with ensuring the vote for Mister Lincoln?"

The man let out a small sigh. "Yes, the presidential campaign consumes my schedule, but at the same time, thoughts of you consume my mind. If I may be so bold." He added this last part hastily.

Leda looked away, turning her gaze to a tree on the church's grounds. "What of your wife?" Her voice had grown quiet. "Are you not content in your matrimony?"

He didn't respond right away, and when he did, his words were quieter as well. "Leticia is pious to a fault... The Church teaches that the sole purpose of amorous congress is to 'be fruitful and multiply'. We are both past our fruitful years, and thus she will no longer take me to bed. Yet, I remain a man... with all that entails."

"Is it not written in Scripture that a wife should be dutiful to her husband?"

"Yes, and she is, in all ways save this one. She caretakes our house and our child, she assists me with preparing orations... She loves me. And I do still love her. But I also love you, Leda."

"This, then, is the purpose for which you have called this meeting?" Turning back to face him, Leda raised her voice, while still being careful not to draw attention from passersby. "To justify taking me as your... pallakída? That I may slake your lust?"

"Palla-what now?" Desmond looked to Rebecca.

She shrugged. "It's Greek to me. Whatever language that was, Baby isn't set up to translate it."

Zachariah pressed on, undeterred by her anger. "It is more than mere lust I feel for you, Leda. It is respect. Admiration. Trust. I see in you a kindred spirit to myself. A kind heart, with strong moral fibre, and unflinching courage. Passion, and the boldness to take action when the need arises."

Leda replied snippily. "You do flatter me, but are these not qualities shared by all Assassins?"

_So she __**is**__ an Assassin._ Alexis' suspicions were confirmed.

The senator let out a short soft laugh. "An astute observation. But among all the Assassins I have had the pleasure of meeting, I harbor a singular attraction to you, Leda. Who can fathom the whim of the wind that guides Cupid's arrow?"

"Cupid's arrow is but a metaphor. Dispense with your rhetoric. Tell me straight out what you intend."

"As you wish." He took a breath. "If you would allow it, I would continue our romance, in this same clandestine manner. It does pain my honest nature to add another secret to the one I already guard. But the social mores of today do not allow for a man's love to be shared among more than one woman. So it must be, that I remain sworn to Letitia in the eyes of God and the law. Know this, Leda: my passion for you is not lessened by the unofficial nature of our relationship." His eyes were fixed intensely on hers.

A long minute passed in silence. Alexis wished she could tell what her ancestor was thinking.

She finally spoke. "And if I do not agree to such an arrangement?"

His expression was unreadable in the fading light. The sun had gone now, and streetlights provided only faint illumination. "You are, of course, free to avoid me... I would pine for you, but I would not pursue you further. Our interactions would be limited to what is necessary, being that we **are **within the same chapter of the Brotherhood."

"Zachariah..." Her voice softened. "I would be lying if I were to say I had no feelings for you. I am yet unsure the exact nature of those feelings, and whether I could tolerate the relationship you propose... I will need some time to think on this."

"But of course." He nodded in understanding. "I will pay a visit to the café in two days' time to meet with Uriah. You may give me your answer then. Until then, I wish you... asfáleia kai eiríni." He smiled proudly.

Alexis was confused, as were the Assassins monitoring the feed.

Leda's eyes widened in surprise. "You have been studying Greek?"

"It is a fascinating language. How do you rate my pronunciation?"

"Satisfactory... It will take more than reciting a few words of my native language to win my affections, Senator." She turned and began to retrace her steps, calling out to him as she retreated into the night. "Safety and peace to you as well."

"This seems like a good stopping point," Rebecca said. "Time to return to the present." She exited Alexis from the memory sequence.

She was unexpectedly back in the void again, and then back to her own body. "Woah..." Alexis rubbed her face with her left hand, not feeling ready to sit up quite yet. "That was... quite a trip."

"Yeah, it's something else, all right," Desmond said. "So you have Assassin ancestry, too. Who'da thunk?"

"Lots of people are descended from Assassins." Shaun said, dismissively. "It doesn't mean she's special or anything."

"Hey, at least it was an entertaining way to spend an hour," Rebecca said. "Like a soap opera. Except this was actually interesting."

"Are you feeling all right, Alexis?" Lucy asked. "Any dizziness, headache, nausea?"

"I think I'm good," she said. "Can you unhook me from this thing, Rebecca?"

"Hey, 'this thing' is my Baby!" she retorted, extracting the Animus input and slapping a bandage over the small wound.

* * *

Lynette Moseley logged into her Amail account and scanned the inbox as she sipped her tea. She made herself check the fool thing once a week, just in case there was anything important, which there usually wasn't.

It seemed there was nothing important this week either. She checked the box beside every message and was about to hit "Delete Selected" when she saw that one of them was from Alexis. Lynette's daughter usually emailed her a few times a year to keep her apprised of what was happening in her life. _Yeah, I haven't gotten an update from her since January..._ She unselected it, and trashed all the others before clicking the subject line: "Latest news"

**Hi Mother,**

**I hope you're doing good. I've got a few new things going on. For one, I'm not answering phones at Health Assure anymore. That job was sapping my life force. Also, things fell apart with Desmond a while ago, but I met a new guy over here. Oh, yeah, I'm in Italy now. It started as just a vacation but I think I might stay with Vinny for a while. He speaks English pretty well and he's teaching me Italian. He also runs a pretty successful winery. It's beautiful out here, check these photos. After living in New York so long, this place is amazingly relaxing.**

**Give my regards to Marco and Adrian. Hope the weather isn't too hot over there.**

**Alexis**

Lynette thought it a little odd that Alexis would suddenly move overseas, but she'd always had an impulsive side. _Didn't work out with Desmond, huh? Hope this Vinny isn't just a rebound._ Of the two attached pictures, the first showed horses grazing in an open field, and the second showed rows of grapevines stretching into the distance.

What the woman didn't know was that the email had not really come from her daughter's Yahoo account, and the images were not of Alexis' current location. The headers had been forged by Shaun to conceal any traces of the message's true origin. The photos had been skillfully shopped from Animus visual data.

The vintner named Vinny was also a fiction, of course.

* * *

Endnotes:

- "Alpha ancestor" - This is a concept I made up.

- "M's Church" - Mariner's Church, built 1849

- "amorous congress" - Thanks to Mental Floss for their article "17 Euphemisms for Sex From the 1800s".

- "pallakída" - παλλακίδα - mistress/concubine

- "asfáleia kai eiríni" - ασφάλεια και ειρήνη - safety and peace

- "Amail" - I think Abstergo exists instead of Google in the AC universe. Like, imagine if Google didn't have that "Don't be evil" motto. Well, actually, Templars don't think that they're evil...


	8. Chapter 8: Fantascienza

**Heads up, there's major spoils for AC2 and Brotherhood in this chapter, yo.  
(I mean, technically there is a possibility, however small, that you could be reading this and not have played them)**

* * *

"Hey, Anne, what's the deal with Alexis?"

The woman didn't look up from her keyboard. "Italy, remember? She's s'posed to get back in to JFK today, back to the grind tomorrow." She pronounced it "tamarah".

"Nah, she up and quit."

"Quit?!" She spun her chair around and took off her headset. "Get outta town! What for?"

"Beats me. Lewis got the email and he wouldn't lemme in on the details. I figured you'd know what's up."

"First I've heard of it." A phone rang and the woman turned back to the computer, replacing her headset. She repressed her New York accent a bit as she answered. "Thanks for calling Health Assure, this is Anne, how can I assist you today?"

* * *

"Hey. What'cha doin'?" Alexis peered over Desmond's shoulder. "Oh, checking your secret emails... Why don't y'all just talk to each other? I mean, you're all in this same room all the time."

Desmond saw one of the messages from Shaun had been forwarded from William. "My dad isn't."

"There's mail from your dad? What's it say? If it's not too top secret for my ears, that is."

He clicked on it and began to read. "It's updates on some other Assassin teams... in Russia... Brazil... Japan... and... uhh."

She detected the worried tone in his final syllable. "What, what is it?"

Desmond gestured to the screen, and her eyes followed. "Denver... safe house... everything was gone... attacked and captured by Templars? Uh-oh..."

"Yes, that would be very 'uh-oh'." Shaun now joined the conversation. "You see, dearie, despite evidence to the contrary, being an Assassin isn't all fun and games, mucking about in the Animus, solving puzzles and whatnot."

"But... someone can rescue them, right? Like you guys rescued Desmond."

"If anyone had any idea where they were, maybe! Even then, it might not be worth the risk. If they've been captured, you better believe there's a ton of security on them. That is, if they're even still alive."

"Hey!" Rebecca interjected. "Don't assume the worst. They could have just gone dark."

"Hope for the best, be prepared for the worst," Shaun retorted. "Either way, there's nothing the four of us can do about it."

"Five."

"What?"

"There's five of us here now." Desmond jerked his thumb to indicate his girlfriend.

"Oh, that changes **everything**! Now we'll **definitely** be able to rescue them. Oh, if only Alexis had been in Denver, she would have really shown those Templars what-for!"

"Shove it, Shaun, you know that's not what I meant."

* * *

The golden centerpiece of the plaza resembled a giant pine cone. Ezio pressed his hand to one of the scales, activating some unseen mechanism which unfolded a portion of the sculpture. A metallic sphere, lines etched across its surface, was revealed.

As he took the orb, it gleamed, seemingly illuminated from within. _Doesn't really look like an apple_, Alexis thought.

Cesare Borgia strode into view, flanked by two heavily armored guards. "You?!" he said surprisedly, as if he had expected to find someone else there.

Ezio turned calmly, almost tauntingly, to face him. "Looking for this?"

"It ends now, Assassino. My sword will take your life." Cesare pointed said sword at his nemesis, holding the bold, cinematic pose for a long second. Then he faltered, clutching his side, and made a sound something like "Uagh-erg!" Falling back, he gestured to his companions. "Guards!"

Two more swords were drawn to replace Cesare's. They began to run towards the Assassin.

Ezio raised the Apple. There was a powerful, electric sound, like lightning. Aptly enough, brilliant bolts of light emanated from the artifact at the same time.

The goons paused for a beat, turning to each other. Then one of them ran the other through with his sword. Apparently unphased by this, the other guard responded with gunfire to his attacker's face.

"Gah!" Alexis yelped in surprise. Ezio's two foes fell to the ground as the otherworldly beams dissipated.

"Yeah, that gizmo's pretty crazy," Rebecca said. She, too, had been taken aback by the display of the Apple's power, though she didn't show it so outwardly.

Cesare retreated, calling more soldiers to take down Ezio. Simulation or not, the next few minutes had everyone on the edge of their seats. Desmond skilfully freeran his ancestor over the Vatican rooftops to elude the myriad guards.

"Get him! Cut off his legs!" one yelled.

"Man, that's a bit harsh."

"That's the thing about Templars. They're kind of mean sometimes."

Repeating his graceful dive from Saturday's memory, Ezio finally ditched the Borgia patrols.

"We're getting close to our goal here, guys," Rebecca said excitedly. "He's almost unlocked that final memory sequence."

Now Ezio was breaking up a meeting between Cesare and some cardinals. It wasn't difficult; the holy men nearly pissed themselves when they saw the Assassin. As they fled, more Borgia guards streamed into the Colosseum. Ezio was surrounded, outnumbered, but armed with the Apple of Eden. Thin strands of energy spidered out from it to the head of each foe. Those who were touched by silver strands fell instantly, blood pouring from every cranial orifice, while golden ones merely turned them rampant upon the other soldiers.

* * *

After a brief but intense battle pitting Cesare's few remaining supporters against Ezio, Claudia, Bartolomeo, la Volpe, Niccolò, and the numerous Assassin recruits (a hopelessly lopsided fight if ever there was one), Desmond exited the Animus, saying he needed a break.

"But we're so close! Why stop now?"

"I'm exhausted, Rebecca. Every time I use the Apple, it... it does something to me... drains my energy," he explained. "Ezio, I mean. When Ezio uses it. But I feel it just the same."

"We'll call it quits for today, then. It's about time for supper anyway," Lucy said.

Supper was nothing fancy: just sandwiches and soda.

"So..." Alexis said, then trailed off.

"So... what?" Lucy prodded.

Alexis was hesitant to bother them with yet more questions, but this one concerned a rather crucial detail. "So... that Apple thing... it's pretty powerful."

Rebecca laughed. "I'll nominate that for 'Understatement of the Century."

"Once you find it... whatcha gonna **do** with it?"

Rebecca froze. So did Shaun and Lucy. The atmosphere was suddenly tense.

"Wuh-" Desmond began to answer, but the words stuck in his throat. He coughed awkwardly, swallowed, and started again. "...Would you believe, save the world?"

"What, by making all the Templars turn good?"

"Templars aren't the issue here," Rebecca said, slowly. For once, her voice was devoid of playfulness. "...Did you ever see the movie _2012_?"

"**What?**" This question didn't jibe with the solemnness in the air. "What does that have to do with anything? Don't tell me you're saving the world from crappy movies?"

"Something's going to happen in December, Alexis."

She rolled her eyes. "What, a solar flare, Planet X, the fucking Rapture?"

"We're not a hundred percent certain, but a solar flare leading to a massive geomagnetic reversal seems likely," Lucy answered.

"You gotta be shitting me." Alexis looked around at the humorless faces of the Assassins. "This is like, hazing the newbie, right? I'm not falling for it, guys."

"This is no joke," Shaun said. "The Earth is facing a catastrophe, and Ezio's Apple holds the key to stopping it."

She still wasn't convinced. "So, you'll mind control the Sun to... not do a solar flare? I'm pretty sure stars don't have brains."

"It does more than control minds, Lex," Desmond said. "It has information, hidden away inside it... That's how Altaïr figured out guns. The Apple showed him visions of the future."

"You... really aren't kidding?"

"Oh, how I wish we were," Shaun said. "Things would be a lot simpler if we were **just** fighting Templars."

"Christ, and I thought this was some science fiction shit **before**!"

"Speaking of deities," Shaun continued, reminded by her choice of interjection, "there's something else you should know." She stared at him, brow furrowed. "The Pieces of Eden- yes, there's more than one of them- were made by a race of... beings," the word 'people' didn't feel right to him, "who were very powerful, and were seen as gods by the ancient humans."

"Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously," Lucy echoed. "The only reason we know this is coming is because Those Who Came Before left warnings. That Apple holds the locations of their temples."

"Temples?"

"Don't let the term mislead you," Shaun advised. "They're more like bunkers built to store their incredibly advanced technology."

"Like, 'indistinguishable from magic' advanced?"

"I did say they were seen as gods."

"So, we have to find the Apple, use it to find the temples, then find some way to stop the Sun," Desmond summarized. "And we only have about ten weeks to do it."

"This shit is **bananas**! You're saying the whole 2012 doomsday thing is for real, and some freaky godlike super science aliens are the only ones who know how to stop it?"

"Well, you asked what we'll do with the Apple," Shaun said, shrugging. "So we told you. Whether you believe it or you don't, doesn't make a lick of difference to us." He sipped at his soda.

"And the First Civvies weren't aliens," added Rebecca. "At least as far as we can tell."

As insane as this all sounded, Alexis couldn't think of any reason they would be making it up. _Hell, the taste of clam chowder from two centuries ago is recorded in my DNA. Is this really any more implausible?_ "Anything else I should know? Any more crazy secrets?"

"Uh, yeah, actually..." Desmond rubbed a hand on the back of his neck. "My last name's not Wilson... It's Miles."

"Desmond... **Miles**..." Alexis repeated, as if trying to get used to the sound of it.

"Yeah." He remembered something else that they'd refrained from telling her before. "Oh, and Adam and Eve were real people."

She threw her head down to the table in a gesture of defeat. "Apple of Eden. As in, Garden of Eden..." she muttered. "Next you'll tell me the snake was a Templar."

"Hey, I wouldn't have believed it either, but the video-"

Her head snapped up. "There's a fucking **video**?! Of **Adam** and **Eve**?"

"From Subject Sixteen. The Animus-"

A hollow laugh. "Of course, the Animus... they are everyone's ancestors, of course... So what's in this video?"

"Well, it's nothing like you've read in Genesis. First off, there's no snake..."


	9. Chapter 9: Decifrati

_Spoilers for "The Truth" section of Brotherhood._

* * *

**THEY LISTEN TO US WITH THESE VEHICLES THAT ARE FASTER THAN RACECARS**

"As usual, the so-called 'clue' doesn't make any sense..." Desmond muttered. He was taking a breather from the violent memories to finish finding and decoding the last of Subject Sixteen's data clusters.

"Telephone lines."

"Whazzat, Lex?"

"People listen with telephones. Sound goes way faster than a racecar. Get the pictures with phone lines in them. There, there, and there, for starters."

Of course, Desmond couldn't see her, but once he knew what he was looking for, he quickly picked out the images she must have been pointing at, and then two more. "Nice!"

The screen cleared and a voice projected from the computer speakers: the same voice that usually only said, "Loading" or "Quarantine zone".

"I know you are there. I want to go home. Please... I need you. Don't leave me alone in the dark."

"Must be Sixteen's thoughts during his captivity. Poor bugger must have been at Abstergo a long time," Shaun said sympathetically.

"Why would he say 'I need you', though?"

Shaun shrugged. "Stockholm syndrome?"

"Pull over here," a man's recorded voice said after the next segment was solved.

"What's going on, Gary?"

"I wanna speak to you alone. You know that CIA stuff for my new book..."

"About the corporations?"

"It's so much bigger than I thought!"

"That's what she said!" Desmond interjected loudly.

Alexis and Rebecca sniggered. "Oh, grow up," Lucy chided.

"-just a red herring. The real puppetmaster is Abstergo."

"Abstergo?"

"They want everyone to think they're no different than any of the other names in big pharma. But their members have holdings in other companies: Coke, Kraft, Comstatic, Detroit, Wall Street! Basically every company above a certain size has ties to Abstergo!"

Alexis immediately realized the implications of this, but Gary's companion was dismissive. "So?"

"They're on their way to running the entire world! They have people in government too for Chrissake! Listen, I needed to tell someone about this, because I've been keeping all the research a secret and... I can't hold it in anymore!"

"That's what **he** said!"

"**Des**mond!"

"Come on, Lucy, I'm trying to lighten the mood a little!"

* * *

"What do you suppose the final message will be? Another prehistoric video?"

"Well that one was interesting and all, but personally I'm hoping for something with a little more immediate relevance this time 'round. You know, something actually helpful? Like a map to this bloody temple, that'd be really ace."

Rebecca interrupted the rant. "Did you get a fix on the entry point for Cluster 10, Mr. Grumpy Pants?"

"Grumpy **Trousers**, thank you very much!" Shaun scrolled through a file on his screen. "It's somewhere on Colle Aventino. South of Isola Tiberina."

Desmond rushed Ezio to the location, keeping Eagle Vision active so he could locate the hidden spot more quickly, even though it made his head hurt to use the ability for long periods. "There it is! Right there on the tower." A man dropped the crate he was carrying and yelled out something about decency laws as Ezio pushed past him to climb the building.

"Where have you been? I missed you."

"If Sixteen was trying to creep us the fuck out, he's sure done a good job," Desmond said in response to the monotone. "Ha. Adam and motherfuckin' Eve. How thematically appropriate," he added when the first part of the decryption sequence loaded.

The next fifteen minutes were filled with chattering and arguing as the four people watching the Animus feed all chimed in with "help" on the circular puzzle. "Do the outer ring first, no, I mean last!" "Don't turn that one, it's linked to the other one!" "Left, left, yeah, now back to, oh shit, now that first part's messed up again!"

Eventually it was solved with a final clunk, and the Edenic painting remade itself into a photo of the Earth viewed from space, overlaid by a surreal symmetry of interlocking whorls. To Alexis, the negative spaces within the orange lines were two eerie eyes, and she had the distinctly unnerving feeling that they were watching her somehow; that Subject Sixteen was watching all of them. Normally she would have dismissed such a thought as pure paranoiac pareidolia. But after these last few days... _Nothing is true. Everything is permitted... Anything is possible?_

The shifting sentence accompanying the puzzle had now resolved into two lines of poetry.

**O brave new world. What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?**

"Shakespeare and Blake. Hmm."

"What do you suppose it means?"

"The world... hand or **eye**..." Shaun's own eyes widened. "Sixteen must be referring to the satellite!"

"The Eye-Abstergo Satellite!" Rebecca gasped.

"What?" Desmond and Alexis asked simultaneously.

"The Templars' latest plot to impose 'order' on humanity. They reckon the entire planet can be controlled by an Apple of Eden placed into low orbit. That's why they're so keen to get their hands on one."

"And what's that symbol? I've seen it before. One of the things Sixteen drew in my room." Alexis wondered what he meant by that.

Shaun furrowed his brow. "It's... some maths equation... You wouldn't have any hope of understanding it."

A wide grin cracked Desmond's face. "You don't know what it is, do you? Imagine that, something the great brainiac Brit doesn't know!"

"Just get the bloody thing decrypted already!"

"Shaun doesn't know everything, Shaun doesn't know everything," Desmond sang loudly and gleefully in the same melodic fashion a child might use to mock someone for having cooties. His chanting obscured the ominous next words synthesized by the Animus: "Reasoning centers active. I understand..."

"Shut up, it's saying something," Rebecca finally demanded. "This might be important."

"What, like 'I missed you' was important?"

"You never know! He might have hidden some clue in the audio."

"If you say so." He rolled his eyes and fell silent.

"No. No! Get it out! Get it... Kill... me..." finished the computerized voice.

Desmond waited a full five seconds and then said, "Yeah, nice clue there."

* * *

"I shut it down. I can shut it down, but it does not go away. It is almost time, Desmond Miles."

The synthetic female voice paused for the exact length of time it took the named man to blurt, "What the fuck?" Then it continued. "I know how to open the path. Soon, my true purpose will be revealed. Soon, I will not be alone."

"What the fuck?" Desmond repeated. "How could Sixteen know my name? He programmed all this before Abstergo even got me, right?"

"Easy answer to that. Obviously, in addition to all these voice recordings and documents Sixteen's showing us, he must have also accessed Abstergo's plans to kidnap you, " Lucy supplied, a slight anxiety in her words.

"I'm not so sure," Alexis said.

"You think Abstergo knows I'm looking at these clusters? They're spying on us somehow?" Desmond wondered.

"There's no way!" Lucy countered. "They'd have gotten to us already if that were the case. Go on and clear the quarantine zone, Desmond." She didn't sound her usual calm self.

Once the quarantine was lifted, the short clips of video garbage arranged themselves and played in this order:

**the  
****mir  
****a  
****cle  
****is  
****in  
****the  
****exe  
****cution**

Desmond was perplexed, as was everyone else. "There's nothing here."

"Straaange." Rebecca elongated the word for emphasis. "I'm seeing a massive amount of data."

"What does he mean, 'The miracle is in the execution'?" Lucy wondered uneasily.

Alexis shrugged. "I dunno."

"Some kind of commentary on nihilism?" Shaun offered.

"He's playing with us!" Desmond snarled, then his face shifted as he thought of another possibility. "Unless..."

"It isn't a video!" Rebecca finished for him. "It's an **executable**! A genetic memory file! Hang on, I'll just reformat the data..." Her fingers flew imperceptibly fast across the keyboard. "Launch it yourself, when you're ready."

There was a long minute during which nothing happened.

"Um, what are you waiting for?"

"I launched it forever ago. Now Ezio's in the white room. You said there was a lot of data, I guess that's why it's taking so long to load."

All the monitors were abruptly overtaken by lines of static noise. "Crap, I just lost visual."

"Smashing, just what we need, some demented malware taking out our Animus systems! What else should we have expected from a lunatic but a sadistic prank!"

"It's working on my end," Desmond said.

Rebecca turned to face him. "You're accessing the memory?"

"Uh," his eyes scanned back and forth, "I think so?"

"What are you seeing? Nothing's coming through the feed."

"It's empty... kinda like... a Bizarro World version of the loading area... Wait, there's something. Stairs... and more stairs... and **more** stairs. And... uh. I don't think this is a memory."

"What do you mean?"

"I just noticed I'm **me**. Not Ezio, or anybody else."

"Well what is it if it's not a memory?"

"I dunno... It's like that training module you made. Only weird. Hold up, is that... You guys still can't see any of this?"

Rebecca fruitlessly pressed a couple of keys. "Nope."

"Well, now there's a giant Assassin symbol made of blocks on the wall. I think I'm supposed to climb it."

"When you say it's like the training module, what do you mean?" Rebecca probed.

"I mean it's really, **really** close. Like... all of the same parts, but they keep popping in and out... shifting around. The whole thing is... disorienting, to say the least. Hup."

"Hup?"

"Beams. Hup. Parkouring across. Hup." Desmond gave a sharp puff of effort with every unseen leap he made in the simulation.

"I wrote that module after we got Desmond, so no way Sixteen'd have been able to copy it. Maybe the baseline of the executable input is adjusting itself, wrapping the simulation output to the closest suitable object specs in our code."

"What d'you reckon the point of this is?" Shaun asked to nobody in particular.

"Ahh, now there's... something, some stairs, floating? What the hell? Why am I back here again?"

"Back where?"

"Down a level from where I just was. Maybe this is just a prank after all."

"I told you Sixteen was mentally unstable," Lucy said. "Right, we're wasting our time here. Quit whatever this is, Desmond. Let's finish up with Ezio."

"No, I think he should keep going," Alexis said, uncharacteristically bold. "Why would someone go to all the trouble to hide this file so well if it's meaningless?" She knew she might be judged harshly for trying to tell them what to do when she wasn't part of their team, but... "It said... Subject Sixteen said he knows 'how to open the path'. I dunno what that means, but it sounds important."

"Yeah, let's investigate this a little further at least," Rebecca agreed. "A file this size has to be for something other than an obstacle course."

"Right, I'll keep going then," said Desmond. "Can I skip giving you guys a play-by-play? Just assume everything is the same obstacle course shit unless I say otherwise."

They sat around and waited while he did whatever it was in the Animus. From time to time he made more of those "Hup" sounds.

Then they heard a decidedly different sound: the Animus speech synthesizer again. "Compiling subsystems."

"Something's compil-" Desmond started to report.

"We can hear it," Shaun told him.

"-ture. Tendons. Heart. Voice." This last was spoken by a man, and didn't have the same flat affect as the rest of the words.

"Subject Sixteen?" Desmond asked in bewilderment.

An unhinged laugh, almost a cackle. "Yes... Subject Seventeen."

"...You're dead. I saw your blood."

Shaun, Rebecca, Lucy, and Alexis were all too stunned to say anything.

"No time. It is far later than you know," the voice, Subject Sixteen's voice, sounded anguished. "Too late to save them."

"Who?"

"She is not who you think she is. Everything you hope to become, everything you hold dear. It's already gone." Everything he said contained so much emotion, yet so little meaning.

"Explain," Desmond begged. "Please."

"Eden. She... in Eden. Find Eve. The key. Her DNA..."

"Tell me!"

"I cannot... The sun... Your son..." There was a grunt of frustrated exhaustion. "Too weak... Must replenish energy..."

"Don't go!"

"I am with you until the end. Find me in the darkness." The message finished with these two enigmatic sentences, spoken in a more subdued manner.

Desmond cried out an elongated "Woaaah!" of surprise, and then the visual feed resumed, showing Ezio Auditore back on Italian farmland.

"Oookay..." Rebecca said slowly. "So there was something there after all. We heard what you heard. But what did you **see**?"

Desmond exited Ezio and sat up, looking thoroughly dazed. "I- I saw... He just looked like a silhouette of light. A hologram or something... At first I thought it was a recording. But he... he heard me. He responded to me. He was there."

"An artificial intelligence?" Rebecca marveled. "Wow, Sixteen's even more of a whiz than I'd thought."

"Didn't sound very intelligent to me," Shaun scoffed. He scanned over a notepad on which he'd hastily scrawled the brief dialogue. "Everything's gone, Eden, find Eve, the key, her DNA, the sun, your son, the end, the darkness. Didn't make a lick of sense."

"Well, 'the sun' and 'the end' must refer to this whole 2012 deal y'all are trying to stop."

"Obviously, but it's not like anything it said is any help to us in stopping it!"

"Sounds like... We have to find Eve's DNA somehow?" Desmond thought aloud. "How the hell are we supposed to do that?"

"Maybe not her DNA itself, but her genetic memories," Rebecca proposed.

Desmond got up from the red recliner. "Well if we have to relive those, don't make **me** do it! Any of you guys can take my place in there and get **your** head messed with by Bleeding Effects and shit for a change."

"And what's this about your son?" Lucy asked.

"I'm pretty damn sure I don't have any kids!" he yelled, immensely frustrated by the lack of useful information in Sixteen's file. "Unlike Ezio I don't bang every chick I meet!"

"Speaking of Ezio," Shaun began, but Desmond waved him off.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Lemme go take a piss first before you shove me back into him." He headed out, shoulders scrunched in a distinct pout.

* * *

Cesare was putting up one hell of a fight against Ezio. "Why won't this **cazzo** just die already?!" Desmond growled. "Why can't I just sparargli nella testa!?"

"Yikes, sounds like it's quittin' time," Rebecca said, quickly booting him out of the memory.

Desmond lifted his head slightly to glare at her. "Che diamine, Rebecca? Stavo quasi finito! Ora dovrò risinc l'intera sequenza!"

"Get a grip, Desmond!" Alexis urged him, distressed.

"Cosa vuoi dire?"

"You're having a language bleed," Lucy informed him.

"Lingua-" He clapped a hand over his mouth in sudden dismay.

"Not only that, but your vitals were starting to spike," Rebecca warned. "Ezio can't fight properly with you all wacked out like this, and it's not exactly good for **you** either! We gotta call it a night. Wherever that Apple is, it's been there five hundred years. It can wait a little longer."

* * *

_Endnote: Yeah, I changed the Cluster 9 voice file dialogue, because it's ridiculous. Abstergo, a shadow corporation that nobody had ever heard of? There's so much other canon that flatly contradicts this, and in fact indicates quite the opposite: They're a household name. "Can't eliminate them from our life completely," or whatever Mrs. Miles said in Desmond's Journey._


End file.
